1MDB scandal avoidable if BMF inquiry’s advice followed, says Kit Siang

 

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said in March 1986, he had called for a royal commission of inquiry to be formed to follow up on the BMF committee’s work but this did not happen.

PETALING JAYA: The 1MDB scandal could have been avoided if Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s government had taken on the Bumiputera Malaysia Finance (BMF) inquiry committee’s recommendations over the RM2.5 billion BMF scandal, says DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said, in March 1986, he had called for a royal commission of inquiry to be formed to follow up on the BMF committee’s work but this did not happen.

“I also warned that unless the conspirators were brought to justice, another banking or financial scandal 10 or 20 times bigger than the BMF scandal would happen.

“This, unfortunately, came to pass three decades later in the form of the 1MDB scandal,” he said, adding that he was reminded of this while reading Chooi Mun Sou’s memoirs titled “Malaysia My Home – Quo Vadis”.

-ADVERTISEMENT-

Ads by 

Chooi, a lawyer, was a member of the three-man BMF inquiry committee led by then auditor-general Ahmad Noordin Zakaria.

The BMF scandal made headlines in the early 1980s after it was revealed that the financial institution had given out loans in amounts that exceeded its capital, losing RM2.5 billion in the process.

The scandal also forced the government to bail out BMF’s parent company, Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Bhd.

Lim noted that the main culprits of the BMF scandal were brought to justice, but pointed out that action was taken against them by the Hong Kong authorities, not the Malaysian government. - FMT