MP SPEAKS | Essentially, the RCI report of the Bank Negara forex losses in the 1990s has presented the top political leaders and public servants in 1990s as a cast of villains and raises questions about the present top political and government leaders in relation to 1MDB scandal - greatest corruption scandal in the nation’s history.
In regards to the report, everything is happening with unusual rapidity advertising that the motivating impulse is not to seek justice but the 3Vs of vengeance, vindictiveness and vendetta to target Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim with the impending 14th general election in 120 days.
One sad outcome is the besmirching and devaluation of the institution of Royal Commission of Inquiries – as evident by the dishonourable manner in which the RCI report on Bank Negara forex losses in the 1990s was surreptitiously circulated to members of Parliament on the last day of Parliament, without any notice whatsoever and without any opportunity for MPs to debate it!
On Jan 27, 2017, a former Bank Negara assistant governor claimed that Bank Negara had accumulated losses of USD10 billion in the early 1990s because of speculative foreign exchange trading activities and that there were no investigation carried out despite these huge losses.
This was untrue – for if the purpose was to determine the losses that had been incurred by Bank Negara due to foreign exchange dealings in the 1990s, all that was necessary was the declassify two Official Secrets Act documents into Bank Negara’s forex losses – the “Audit Report on Foreign Exchange Operations Division of Banking Department and Processing Section of Accounts Department As At December 31, 1992” dated Jan 21, 1994, which was prepared by Bank Negara’s Internet Audit Department (IAD) for Bank Negara’s top management and Audit Committee and the “Accounting Treatment of Losses Arising from Active Reserve Management 1988 – 1994” dated April 18, 2007, prepared by Bank Negara in 2007 upon instructions of the then Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
On the basis of these two internal reports as well as other documents, the RCI concluded that the total amount of Bank Negara forex losses in the 1990s was RM31.5 billion – comprising RM12.35 billion in 1992, RM15.29 billion in 1993 and RM3.86 billion in 1994.
But why have these two documents not been declassified under the Official Secrets Act for public study, and why is there no proper and comprehensive parliamentary debate on the RCI report on the Bank Negara forex losses in the 1990s?
In contrast, the Najib cabinet – which carried out a continuing charade in the past few years pretending that the 1MDB scandal which catapulted Malaysia into a “global kleptocracy” does not exist – acted with unusual speed on the former Bank Negara assistant governor’s complaint in January this year, setting up a special task force on Feb 15, 2017 to conduct a preliminary review into Bank Negara’s forex trading losses in the 1990s, which submitted its findings to the Cabinet on June 21.
The cabinet agreed with the special task force’s recommendation and a Royal Commission of Inquiry was set up on July 15, 2017, which submitted its report to the Yang di Pertuan Agong on Oct 13 2017.
For seven weeks the Najib government sat on the RCI report, springing into action only on Nov 30, when the RCI report was surreptitiously circulated to MPs without allowing for a debate and a police report was lodged later on the same day by the RCI secretary, Yunus Ismail.
Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Bukit Aman’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) will conduct the investigations on the foreign exchange losses suffered by Bank Negara in the 1990s as recommended by the RCI.
Earlier, the Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun (photo) said a special team led by Bukit Aman CCID director Amar Singh Ishar Singh had been formed to investigate the case from all angles and that the individuals named would be called up to give statements if necessary.
The RCI recommended that formal investigations be carried out into possible offences of CBT and/or cheating that may have been committed by officers of Bank Negara, the Ministry of Finance, the Auditor-General’s Department, Bank Negara’s Board of Governors, the minister of finance and the prime minister in “carrying out speculative forex dealings and/or concealing the forex losses from the cabinet and Parliament”.
Two questions foremost in the minds of Malaysians are:
Firstly, apart from Mahathir and Anwar, and Nor Mohamed bin Yakcop, who else will be targeted? Will former top Ministry of Finance and Bank Negara officers like Lin See Yin, Mohd Sheriff bin Mohd Kassim (photo), Clifford Francis Herbert, Ainum bte Mohd Saaid, Zeti Akhtar Aziz and Hadenan bin A Jalil now be treated as criminal suspects by the police?
Secondly, in presenting top political leaders and public servants in the 1990s as a cast of villains because of Bank Negara’s forex losses, what about the top political leaders and public servants of today for aiding and abetting the public charade that the greatest corruption scandal in the nation’s history, the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, does not exist although Malaysia is now regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy?
Will the top political leaders and public servants of today, including the prime minister and all cabinet ministers, go down in Malaysian history as the greatest cast of villains because of their acts of commission and omission in the greatest corruption scandal, 1MDB scandal, in the nation’s history?
For Najib’s information, all Malaysians want the answer to the latter question!
LIM KIT SIANG is DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Gelang Patah.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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