Annuar: RCI on Forex scandal upon DAP’s insistence

(Bernama) – The government’s decision to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the foreign exchange (forex) scandal during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s premiership was upon the insistence of the DAP, said Umno information chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

In a posting on Umno’s official portal www.Umno-online.my today, Annuar was quoted as saying that DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang had raised this issue several times and urged that an RCI be set up to investigate the matter.

Annuar said Lim had brought up the matter in Parliament in 1994, one year after it was reported that the nation lost billions of ringgit through forex trading, and then again in Parliament in 2006.

He said Lim also gave detailed facts about the losses incurred by the country in this matter, including saying that the losses amounted to RM30 billion, which was half of the country’s total reserves at that time.

“So the RCI is conducting the inquiry into the forex trading upon the wishes and initiative of DAP which had insisted on an investigation into the matter and the government sees DAP’s insistence as relevant to the people’s interest,” he was quoted as saying at a press conference held after the Umno Supreme Council meeting, here.

The portal also reported that Annuar lambasted the opposition which alleged that the RCI was to get revenge against the former prime minister, and described that statement as purely politically-driven.