Najib’s White House visit panicking Mahathir

By MT Webmaster Last updated Aug 29, 2017

This will be a major setback for Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan. Without the 1MDB issue they have nothing. And with the Bank Negara forex issue looking very bad for them that is a double blow. And the US$5 million that Mahathir paid to get the DoJ to hold these press conferences would be money down the drain. On top of that Mahathir will have to fork out between RM9 million to RM10 million to pay for the legal action in the UK court.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was not invited but today he chose to attend the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) hearing on the US$10 billion Bank Negara forex disaster anyway. Meanwhile, Anwar Ibrahim is upset that he has not been called to testify in the hearing.

But then why did Anwar not ‘testify’ to set the record straight in July 2006 when Lim Kit Siang raised the matter in Parliament? At that time Anwar was already freed from jail (he was freed in September 2004) and he could have said whatever he wanted to say when Kit Siang spoke in Parliament in July 2006.

“More than 12 years ago, in my speech during the debate on the Royal Address on April 11, 1994, I reiterated my call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the colossal Bank Negara foreign exchange losses as a result of speculation in the international currency markets from 1992-1994, with the losses cited as ranging from RM10 billion to RM30 billion,” said Kit Siang.

So, in 1994, Kit Siang had asked that a RCI be set up to investigate the Bank Negara forex disaster. And he asked again, 12 years later in 2006, for this RCI. Anwar, however, kept quiet and said nothing. Anwar did not support Kit Siang’s demand for the RCI. And now he is upset he is not included in that RCI.

Pakatan Harapan’s ‘Top Dog’ is in deep shit

Kit Siang added:

“The Royal Commission of Inquiry should first determine the actual extent of the forex losses suffered by Bank Negara since 1992. I had said that for the two years of 1992 and 1993, Bank Negara’s forex losses could range from RM 16.5 billion to RM25.6 billion. The total forex losses could be more when we take into account the RM1.4 billion contingent liability for 1994 arising from forward forex commitments. Could there be other hidden and secret forex losses in the 1992 and 1993 Bank Negara accounts apart from those who had discussed?”

What is even more interesting is this part of Kit Siang’s speech:

“Bank Negara had been accused of dumping large amounts of Ringgit into the market in the closing days of 1993 to buy US Dollars, causing the Ringgit to fall steeply. That manoeuvre improved Bank Negara’s year-end financial position by raising the value of its currency and gold reserves in Ringgit terms.”

“It is interesting to note that as of November 30, 1993, Bank Negara’s Gold and Foreign Exchange and Other Reserves including SDRs stood at RM60 billion, but within a month by December 31, 1993, it had shot up by RM16.4 billion to RM76.4 billion – an hefty increase of 26 per cent in one month.”

“Bank Negara’s Gold and Foreign Exchange and Other Reserves including SDRs stood at RM46.2 billion. If it had increased at 26 per cent per month, as happened in the one month of December 1993, Bank Negara’s Gold and Foreign Exchange and Other Reserves would have multiplied to the impossible figure of RM587 billion!”

“It is therefore possible that the RM16.4 billion increase of Gold and Foreign Exchange and Other reserves could conceal forex losses, bringing total forex losses to over RM30 billion since 1992.”

“The first task of the Royal Commission of Inquiry is to ascertain whether Bank Negara’s forex losses since 1992 could exceed RM30 billion.”

Kit Siang’s 24-year Crusade against the Bank Negara forex disaster has come back to hurt Pakatan Harapan

Yes, back in 1994, and then again in 2006, Kit Siang had already identified the problem. So what the ongoing RCI needs to do is simply to look into Kit Siang’s revelation and allegation and they will find what they are looking for.

In short, the RCI on the Bank Negara forex disaster is going to cause great pain to Pakatan Harapan considering that the key players in that forex scandal are also the key players in Pakatan Harapan. Hence Pakatan Harapan needs to play up the 1MDB matter to distract everyone from the forex scandal.

And for this they need the help of the US. They need the US to keep the pressure on and to hold a third press conference some time next year just before the general election as a follow up to the first Department of Justice (DoJ) press conference in July 2016 and the second one in June 2017.

But then Pakatan Harapan is facing one major obstacle. And that obstacle is all those pro-Clinton and anti-Trump people in the FBI and DoJ have been sacked and have been replaced with Trump loyalists. And in about 10 days’ time Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is going to meet President Donald Trump. So it now appears like the so-called US action against 1MDB is going to be dead in the water.

Mahathir suspects this is what is going to happen and that is why he preempted it by saying the United States is going to interfere in the coming general election or GE14 (READ HERE). Basically Mahathir needs the DoJ to hold a third press conference just before the general election and talk about 1MDB. They have to create the impression that the DoJ investigation is progressing well and that they are very close to taking action against Najib.

Pakatan Harapan needs a third DoJ press conference just before the general election to use as ammunition in the election campaign

Actually this is not what is happening. But they need to pretend this is what is happening. And the third DoJ press conference will give that impression. And this third press conference has to be held just before the general election so that Pakatan Harapan can go to town with the issue and use it as ammunition in the election campaign.

So when Mahathir accused the US of interfering in the general election what he means is the DoJ might not hold this third press conference after all since the pro-Clinton and anti-Trump people in the FBI and DoJ have all been sacked and have been replaced with Trump loyalists.

Things are really not looking good for Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan one bit. Chinese call this bad feng shui and Indians call it karma. Malays, on the other hand, call it balasan tuhan. Animists would suggest you mandi air bunga. I would simply call it arse luck. Whatever it may be, though, it is game over for Mahathir’s dream of ousting Najib and making his son Mukhriz the future Prime Minister.