Is Kit Siang senile too, Tony Pua (Part 2)
ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL
This blog will not hold back our resentment and demand for the resignation or dismissal of Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop from cabinet. He is corrupt and practise nepotism extensively, destructive in his management of GLCS and policy formulation, and an outright law breaker.
It does not matter that he is the Division Head for Tasek Gelugor. He is bad news and should not be a winnable candidate of BN. After all, he got that post by dishonouring a gentleman’s agreement with Dato Sharif Omar who gave way the MP seat for him.
However, Nor Mohamed, the Minister today is not the same person as Nor Mohamed the Foreign Exchange Trader.
He may have made a loss that deserve a place in the Guiness Book of Worlds Record and any book on financial scandals, but he was a dedicated man, works hard and smart, and honourable. How he plays poker then was a reflection of him as a gentleman.
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| Why didn’t Anwar also be accountable for the loss and resign? |
In 1994, Nor Mohamed and his then boss, BNM Governor the late Tan Sri Jaafar Hussein were gentlemen enough to accept responsibility for making that mother of all losses in the spot currency market.
The market practitioner then justify such activities as taking an active reserve management over a passive reserve management. Before BNM, it was the Russian that steamroll against any market trend.
The person responsible to monitor this activity was the then Finance Minister, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. He gets various reports on reserve, activities and development of program regularly. Lim Kit Siang identified Anwar as also responsible for the loss from putting together his official statements. [Read previous posting here.]
Anwar should resign for his negligence. Why didn’t he resign?
Why didn’t Kit Siang kept demanding on him till today?
Perhaps he is too old and senile to remember he said those words, and to repeat and make ruckus over the same issue. Or perhaps he conveniently senile at the right time and political opportunity.
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| Anwar always main belakang dan refuse responsibility |
When Wong Choon Mei‘s Malaysia Chronicle reported an attempt to deviate responsibility from Anwar to Tun Dr Mahathir, that is wrong. Right is right even if it involves Nor Mohamed. The then Nor Mohamed, I mean.
The except of the report here, below:
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim dropped a bombshell on Monday revealing that the central Bank Negara not only lost RM30 billion trading in the currency markets but that it was former premier Mahathir Mohamad who had ordered him not to punish Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who was then in charge of the bank’s treasury.
Anwar’s revelation bolsters the view that Mahathir had knowledge of and even encouraged Nor to gamble in the global markets, racking up enormous losses that made Malaysia vulnerable to the sharp slowdown of the mid 1990s.
“Dr Mahathir ordered, ‘don’t touch him (Nor)’. The prime minister at the time did not agree with taking action because he said, ‘If we make profits, you praise him (Nor), when we make losses, you want to torture him’,” Anwar told a press conference in Parliament today.
Nor Mohamed had indeed shocked the international markets with his huge deals and buy-sell orders in the 1990s. In his book Malaysian Maverick, author Barry Wain had also written that Mahathir knew of and encouraged Nor to speculate.
Nor Mohamad has never pointed the finger at Mahathir or implicated the older man. However, the fact that Mahathir has consistently refused to punish Nor has stirred suspicion.
He even promoted Nor to Special Economic Adviser and gave him a key role to play in Malaysia’s controversial implementation of currency control measures during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
Tun Dr Mahathir did not bother to reply or is delaying in order to give a snap back at Tony Pua first for calling him senile. There is an answer to it without him having to say anything.
