Not a very good Chinese New Year for Kit Siang

For more than 30 years Kit Siang has been harping on the BMF scandal. In fact, in 1986, Ahmad Noordin conducted a Commission of Inquiry, which upset Mahathir and who demanded that the report be ‘buried’. A few days ago the CIA declassified the documents related to BMF. So now the story is out in the open. This is the golden opportunity for Kit Siang to finish his unfinished business, or is the BMF scandal no longer part of his agenda?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The closing of the monkey year has not been a very good period for Lim Kit Siang. Monkeys are supposed to be mischievous or nakal creatures that like to play pranks on you. Kit Siang probably feels there is never a truer word considering the way he has been acting these last couple of weeks.

Kit Siang boasted that he has spoken and written 10 million words over his last 50 years political career. That may be true but he has always been in control of the ball all that time. He has always been on the attack while he forces others to run for cover and go on the defence. His last few articles, however, give an impression that Kit Siang no longer has control of the ball and is, in fact, running after the ball and chasing it all over the field. This time Kit Siang is the one under attack and is in defensive mode.

I suppose this is what they mean by getting a taste of your own medicine. And Kit Siang is one person who cannot take his own medicine. When he suffers an attack he loses his cool and goes berserk. You can see from his last few blog postings that Kit Siang has lost it. He is no longer in charge and he does not like that feeling. It is like someone who has been sodomising others for 50 years finally getting it up his arse and not enjoying the feeling.

Kit Siang has been screaming for more than 30 years and now is as silent as a church mouse

For more than 30 years Kit Siang has been harping on the BMF scandal. He wants a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to be set up to get to the bottom of the whole thing. Kit Siang also wants an RCI to be set up to investigate the Bank Negara Malaysia FOREX scandal that happened less than ten years later. In fact, Kit Siang demands that all those involved to be sent to jail — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Daim Zainuddin and Anwar Ibrahim amongst them.

Today, though, Kit Siang no longer wants an RCI to be set up to get to the bottom of the BMF and Bank Negara FOREX scandals, or for those involved to be sent to jail. Instead, he wants them to take over the running of the country and to ‘save Malaysia’. So what about the BMF and Bank Negara FOREX scandals? Kit Siang no longer wants to talk about them or for action to be taken against the culprits because all those criminals now support him as the next Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Anyway, for the younger generation who only woke up or gained political awareness around 2008 or so, you can read below ‘The BBMB story’ that was published by The Malaysian Bar (Badan Peguam Malaysia) on 6th August 2008.

The international media has this to say about the matter:

Carrian Group became involved in a scandal with Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Berhad of Malaysia and Hong Kong-based Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF). Following allegations of accounting fraud, a murder of a bank auditor, and the suicide of the firm’s adviser, the Carrian Group collapsed in 1983, the largest bankruptcy in Hong Kong.

Kit Siang himself has written two books about the matter. So if you want more details you can try to get your hands on these books. Kit Siang calls this ‘the Scandal of Scandals’, or as they would say in the west, the mother of all scandals. And Kit Siang has sworn he is going to pursue this matter to the end — ‘sampai ke lubang cacing’, as the Malays would say, or ‘leaving no stoned unturned’ in English.

So now is Kit Siang’s golden opportunity. A few days ago the CIA gave Kit Siang a Chinese New Year present by declassifying and releasing documents related to the BMF affair. So Kit Siang’s 34-year-old dream of bringing the culprits to book and ensure justice for Jalil Ibrahim can finally be realised. Hence why the deafening silence from Kit Siang? Has the cat got his tongue or what?

 

Tan Sri Loy, one of many Chinese millionaires who Mahathir turned into billionaires, and Tunku Abdullah, Mahathir’s crony who was made MBf’s Chairman

Anyway, just to digress a bit, let me tell you a hilarious story. Mahathir was very close to Tunku Abdullah ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman (Tuanku Abdul Rahman was the First Agong), who had saved him from getting detained by Tunku Abdul Rahman (the First Prime Minister) under the Internal Security Act back in 1969.  As a reward, when Mahathir became Prime Minister in 1981, he asked Tan Sri Loy Hean Heong to appoint Tunku Abdullah to the Board of MBf Holdings Berhad and later appoint him the Chairman.

Tunku Abdullah then invited Mahathir to officiate MBf’s new office and in his speech Mahathir kept saying BMF instead of MBF. Mahathir appeared distracted and troubled by the BMF issue that he kept mentioning many times in his speech BMF when he should have said MBF. There was a hushed silence in the crowd as everyone noticed this mistake. Mahathir, however, never noticed his mistake and the media was told to blackout his speech and not report the error. It was actually very embarrassing and it did not go unnoticed that Mahathir was very troubled by the BMF affair.

I met Lorrain in London in 2009 and we met up many times for dinner thereafter

I actually met Lorrain Esme Osman back in 2009 in London and we met many times for dinner thereafter. Prior to that, in the 1980s, I was doing business with one of his companies, Guan Hoe Suzuki. I was importing about 600 units a year their first four-stroke Suzuki 250 from Japan under licence from Guan Hoe.

The Suzuki GSX250 that I was importing from Japan under licence from Lorrain’s company

Anyway, Lorrain told me quite a few things on condition that I promise to not publish anything he tells me. In respect of the wishes of a dear friend who has since passed away (he died almost six years ago) my lips will have to remain sealed.

Nevertheless, the Auditor General, Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin Zakaria, conducted a Commission of Inquiry and came out with a very detailed report. This was reported by The Malaysian Bar, which you can read below. So you can read what Lorrain told me in Ahmad Noordin’s report anyway.

In 1986, a Commission of Inquiry headed by former auditor-general Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin Zakaria established that what was going on in BMF was just “the tip of the iceberg”, implying that bigger hands were at play. The commission report was not tabled in Parliament and had limited public release – 2,000 copies at RM250 each. Noordin was ostracised by the Mahathir administration for his findings, where he was even accused of colluding with the Opposition.

In short, Mahathir killed that report. And this was what was troubling Mahathir when he officiated MBf’s function (which was around that same time) and he kept referring to MBF as BMF, much to the embarrassment of everyone assembled there that day.

Anyway, we shall talk more about that later as there is still much to talk about. Today’s article is more about Lim Kit Siang and about how for more than 30 years he has been harping on the BMF issue. Now, however, since Mahathir has agreed to make him the Deputy Prime Minister if Pakatan Harapan marches into Putrajaya, Kit Siang wants to drop the BMF matter and no longer wants to talk about it or about the CIA report a few days ago.

If Mahathir can be called The Great Liar then surely Kit Siang has earned the title The Great Hypocrite, just like Kim Il-sung was North Korea’s The Great Leader.

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The BBMB story

The Malaysian Bar (Badan Peguam Malaysia), 6th August 2008

In 1980, Bank Bumiputera Malaysia Bhd (BBMB) was receiving RM50 million a month from Petronas as part of an agreement to increase the coffers of the bank which was set up specifically for the benefit of Bumiputras.

Bumiputera Malaysia Finance (BMF) was set up in Hongkong as a vehicle to channel parts of this money. A series of loans totalling about RM2.5 billion were given to Carrian Group’s investment into the territory’s booming property market. However in 1983, Carrian went bust after the property bubble burst and the loans could not be recovered.

BBMB assistant general manager Jalil Ibrahim was sent to the then British colony to conduct an audit. According to court transcripts, on July 17, 1983, he told his staff that he was leaving to meet a “Datuk”. The next day, his body was found in a banana plantation outside Hongkong. The connection between Jalil’s death and BMF, and the unseen hands behind the collapse were never established. Klang businessman Mak Fook Than was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life.

At his trial, Mak had claimed that he merely disposed of Jalil’s body – the murder committed by a Korean working for a man named ‘George’.

Mak had also retracted an earlier statement that he was working for the Finance Ministry and was sent to Hongkong to collect money for a high-ranking public official.

Lorrain, however, feels there were no links between Jalil’s murder and his investigations into BMF’s finances, believing that Jalil was a victim of a blackmail that went wrong.

“From what we had gathered then, Jalil had late night visitors at his hotel room where he was staying. On the day of his murder, Jalil had taken HK$20,000 purportedly for ‘Ibrahim’, but he was not in Hongkong then. That money was to pay off someone. Something went wrong and excessive force was used.”

“We the directors of BMF welcomed Jalil’s audit for it showed that we were on the right path to recover the loans. There were no secret accounts or that Jalil was going to expose more wrongdoings. Jalil’s report in fact, helped the board by showing that we had done them (the loan transactions) properly. Jalil was doing us a favour.”

Investigations revealed that irregular and even fraudulent lending practices led to the loss of billions – losses which were eventually absorbed by BBMB.

Lorrain who was BMF chairman then, was alternate director Dr Rais Saniman.

Carrian Group chairman George Tan and BBMB executive director Datuk Mohamed Hashim Shamsuddin were implicated in the collapse and given jail sentences in Hongkong.

Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin Zakaria was ostracised by Mahathir for his findings and was even accused of colluding with the Opposition

In 1986, a Commission of Inquiry headed by former auditor-general Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin Zakaria established that what was going on in BMF was just “the tip of the iceberg”, implying that bigger hands were at play. The commission report was not tabled in Parliament and had limited public release – 2,000 copies at RM250 each. Noordin was ostracised by the Mahathir administration for his findings, where he was even accused of colluding with the Opposition.