Lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla (above), who acted for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the royal commission of inquiry into forex losses suffered by the country, said the government made the right decision to disregard the commission's findings.
He said this in response to Umno's Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's push for Putrajaya to take up the RCI's recommendations even though the commission's secretary Yusof Ismail has retracted his police report for criminal breach of trust and the case since been categorised as "No Further Action".
The RCI claimed that Bank Negara lost RM31.5 billion through "excessive" and "speculative" trading between 1992 and 1994 and recommended a breach of trust investigation. It implicated Mahathir and then finance minister Anwar Ibrahim.
"It is right for the government of the day to reject the RCI's recommendations as they are unfair. An RCI or special task force should not be set up with a political agenda as was done during then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's time.
"Najib did it as a pre-election move and it backfired. Any government that is just and fair should not abuse an RCI for political purposes," he said.
Najib's government had in 2017 set up an RCI to look into the forex losses suffered during Mahathir's first tenure as prime minister. This after the latter came out of retirement and vowed to bring down the BN government.
Mahathir, leading Pakatan Harapan, successfully ended BN's 61 years in power and returned as prime minister again in the 2018 general election.
Haniff claimed the forex losses RCI report was defective as it had allegedly omitted important information.
"It did not contain written applications and challenges as well as transcripts and oral testimonies submitted on behalf or given by Mahathir nor did it include arguments made by lawyers on behalf of Mahathir.
"The material came up to no less than 495 pages. How can one read the RCI report without these 495 pages?
"The forex losses RCI was conducted in accordance with the law of the jungle, using methods suited for the circus and producing a pre-school outcome," he said.
He also claimed that the RCI did not allow for witnesses to be properly cross-examined or recalled. "Some witnesses were not even allowed to be called," he said.
Haniff said the challenge against the validity of the RCI report was still pending in the Court of Appeal and case management had been set for Aug 28.
He also invited Tengku Razaleigh to his office to view the documents he claimed were omitted by the forex losses RCI report. - Mkini
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