Shouldn’t Najib ‘take advice’ on RCI for 1MDB, Felda too, asks DAP

GEORGE TOWN: Lim Guan Eng has asked the prime minister to take up the suggestion from DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang by forming a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the 1MDB and Felda issues.

The DAP secretary-general and Penang chief minister said this was because Prime Minister Najib Razak had said that the government was only responding to Kit Siang, with the setting up of a RCI on Bank Negara Malaysia’s foreign exchange (forex) trading losses.

In his New Year message, Najib said his government answered Kit Siang’s “long call” for the RCI on forex losses.

“The RCI concluded the central bank lost RM31.5 billion, and that it had impacted the country’s economy and reduced development,” Najib said.

Najib added that the government was also trying to get rid of the crony capitalism culture created by a “former leader”.

However, Guan Eng questioned the motive behind the RCI. He and other opposition politicians saw the RCI as a witch hunt against former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad after he left Umno to form opposition party PPBM.

The opposition also feels it was an attempt to divert the national focus from the 1MDB issue.

“The RCI is a political witch hunt to settle political scores, not to punish those responsible or even recover lost money from the forex losses.

“If you are taking suggestions, why not take Kit Siang’s suggestion for a RCI on 1MDB? Why do we need an RCI 20 years later?

“Why not 1MDB, Felda, which are hot issues now,” he said at a press conference today.

The RCI report on the forex trading losses revealed that then finance minister, Anwar Ibrahim, did not act on the total loss of RM31.5 billion, despite being informed by the auditor-general in the span of three years.

The report also said it was “definitive on the losses incurred by BNM due to forex dealings in 1992, 1993, and 1994, being a total of RM31.5 billion”.

The report also revealed that former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had also helped in “deliberately concealing” the losses.

Guan Eng, who is one of three Pakatan Harapan deputy presidents, said Mahathir alone cannot be faulted for the forex losses but his cabinet at that time too must be held responsible.

“Any decisions made by the cabinet was the equal responsibility of each of its members, as per Westminster parliamentary democracy.” -FMT