Is Kit Siang prepared to kill Mahathir to save himself?
DAP leaders opposed to Kit Siang are watching with glee. Sooner or later everyone comes to a point in their life when they have to decide which turn to take. Take the wrong turn and you will fall down an abyss. Kit Siang has reached that point in his life and the Bank Negara Forex scandal is going to be that killer. Now Kit Siang has to decide whether to throw Mahathir down that abyss or jump down it himself.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Lim Kit Siang has a huge decision to make. Either he throws Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad under the bus or he himself gets thrown under it. This is a decision between kill Mahathir or get killed yourself. And Kit Siang’s many enemies in DAP, plus those in DAP who are opposed to him pussy-footing with Mahathir, do not really care which way he decides because both ways it is going to have devastating results.
DAP insiders say that Kit Siang has been very short-tempered of late and appears to be under tremendous stress. His son Guan Eng’s impending corruption trial — which his lawyers have told him Guan Eng is sure to lose and hence will get sent to jail — is one major stress point. Guan Eng’s jail sentence will ensure the early death of the Lim Dynasty and this time they cannot claim that Guan Eng ‘sacrificed himself’ for a Malay girl (although he actually got sent to jail for contempt of court and not for defending a Malay girl, as DAP has been spinning for decades).
The second stress point for Kit Siang is the recent PAS annual assembly where PKR appears to be still pussy-footing with PAS. In fact, yesterday, Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali left for the Middle East and he brought along one of the PAS EXCO Members as part of his delegation. That shows PKR and/or Azmin are not abandoning PAS like what DAP wants them to do.
In short, PKR is married to DAP but still keeps PAS as its mistress on the side. And this means PKR can either form a coalition government with DAP or a unity government with PAS, depending on which formula works better after the next general election results are known. This gives PKR the best of both worlds. Either way PKR will still be running Selangor but DAP, on the other hand, may not.
Even Anwar Ibrahim has done a U-turn and now says the loss is more than what he told Parliament in 1993-1994
But Kit Siang’s worst stress point of all is his appearance before the Special Task Force investigating the US$10 billion Bank Negara Forex scandal. Kit Siang now has to decide what he is going to say. If he maintain what he has said in the past, and over the last two decades, then he has to throw Mahathir under the bus. But if he does that then Pakatan Harapan is finished. In the end Pakatan Harapan will be only DAP and Mat Sabu’s PAN, with PKR not sure which way they are going. PPBM or Pribumi will be out of the equation, if they are not already dead by then.
To save Pakatan Harapan, Kit Siang has to save Mahathir. And, to save Mahathir, Kit Siang has to contradict what he has been saying since 1993-1994. But then, if he does that, Kit Siang is going to get whacked good and proper because many still remember what he said in the past and will be able to detect the contradictions.
At this juncture, it is Kit Siang who needs Mahathir more than the other way around, says Tunku Aziz
This is what Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim said about the matter.
Kit Siang was quick to accuse former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin of wrongdoing with regards to the losses suffered by the central bank in the forex scandal. Lim Kit Siang even wrote a book to reinforce his allegations of Mahathir’s and Daim’s criminality in this sordid affair.
Fast forward, in today’s vastly changed political circumstances, I shall not at all be surprised if Kit Siang decides that ‘discretion is the better part of valour’ and changes his tune accordingly to avoid upsetting his new, and very strange, political bedfellow.
Kit Siang is clearly a political animal without scruples and it seems providential that the man with whom he now shares his political destiny, Mahathir, comes out of the same morally-battered mould. From all appearances, Kit Siang’s last great ambition, his final hurrah, is to go for the nation’s most coveted political trophy, the office of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
He won’t say that openly because that will put the fear of God in the Malays. So he needs someone like Mahathir behind whom he can hide his true intentions. At this juncture, it is Lim who needs Mahathir more than the other way around.
Yes, Tunku Aziz has preempted Kit Siang and has warned us to expect a U-turn because the DAP leader needs Mahathir and cannot afford to throw Mahathir under the bus. But that would mean Kit Siang is going to suffer a very serious credibility deficit and his enemies in DAP will be able to capitalise on that.
In short, either way Kit Siang is dead. If he saves Mahathir he dies and if he throws Mahathir under the bus he also dies. Not dying is not an option. The only thing Kit Siang now has to contemplate is which way he wants to die. He can choose to save Mahathir and die together with Mahathir or he can choose to throw Mahathir under the bus and die in the next general election.
Is Kit Siang prepared to kill Mahathir, and die in the next general election, or will he try to save Mahathir, and die now?
In case some of you are not aware, or have forgotten, what Kit Siang said in the past about the US$10 billion Bank Negara Forex scandal maybe we can help refresh your memory. Then let us see whether Kit Siang maintains what he said in the past or he does a U-turn in his testimony in front of the Special Task Force.
The colossal forex losses in the last two years have knocked out a big hole’ in Bank Negara, not only making it insolvent (bankrupt) but destroying its credibility and authority as the ‘banker’ and guardian. of banks in Malaysia.
However, the person who must also bear responsibility for the colossal Bank Negara forex losses, apart from Tan Sri Jaffar Hussein, must be the Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, himself. Jaffar should be made a Tun instead of having to resign in ignominy if it could be shown that over the years, Bank Negara had cumulatively made more profits from forex speculation despite the colossal losses in the past two years.
Anwar Ibrahim had misled Parliament last July (1993) when I questioned him whether Bank Negara had suffered more forex losses. Anwar said that this was not true as he had been monitoring the Bank Negara’s forex dealings weekly.
The trio that lost US$10 billion and then covered it up by lying to Parliament
Bank Negara’s forex losses in the past two years could total as high as RM30 billion, making it the biggest financial scandal in Malaysia as well as a world-class financial scandal. There was in fact a conspiracy of disinformation and misinformation to ‘cover up’ the real nature, cause and magnitude of Bank Negara forex losses in the past two years which I will show in the course of my speech could total as high as RM30 billion. It is not only the greatest financial scandal in Malaysia, but has reached the standing to be a world-class financial scandal!
Apart from the Prime Minister (Mahathir) and the Finance Minister, (Anwar) there is no other person in the country who could speak with greater knowledge and authority about the real cause of Bank Negara’s colossal forex losses. In fact, Tun Daim may know even more than Anwar Ibrahim because it was under Daim’s tenure as Finance Minister that Bank Negara ventured into speculative foreign exchange trading- at that time with some minor success!
The Government has still to convince the people that it is serious about the colossal Bank Negara forex losses which could exceed RM30 billion since 1992. With RM30 billion, the Government can declare a ‘holiday’ for all Malaysians from having to pay individual income tax for seven to eight years!
Let the Government prove its seriousness by establishing a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the biggest financial scandal in Malaysia, and for all concerned, starting bear his responsibility fir the colossal Bank Negara forex losses scandal.
(Lim Kit Siang’s speech in Parliament on Monday, 11 April 1994).
