Mahathir’s lawyer demands RCI head retract forex losses comment
(FMT) – Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s lawyer today urged the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan to retract his premature statement that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) suffered RM31.5 billion in foreign exchange losses as it is being used to confuse the public.
Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla said Umno Information chief Annuar Musa on Saturday said that the billions in forex losses suffered by the central bank were “real”, while 1MDB’s losses were just on paper.
“It is clear the premature statement by Sidek and relayed by the senior party leader is intended to confuse the public,” he said before the beginning of today’s hearing.
Haniff said a ruling should be made to maintain the dignity of the RCI members in the eyes of the public.
“No conclusion can be made until a report is submited to the king. I urge the chairman to retract his statement made as a conclusion of the first day of hearing,” Haniff said.
Haniff said a ruling should be made with immediate effect at the end of today’s proceeding.
Sidek, however, just thanked Haniff for his submission and then proceeded to call the next witness to testify in today’s proceedings.
It is also unclear if Sidek would make a decision later in the day.
Mahathir, who was the prime minister when the scandal took place in the early 1990s, has maintained that he was not involved.
Annuar used the comment from Sidek on Saturday, saying that the RM30 billion losses in the forex trading scandal had been confirmed by the ongoing RCI and that such an amount could never be recovered.
“It is not a loss on paper but a real loss that is forever,” Annuar was reported as saying.
Sidek’s remark drew protests from Haniff when the RCI chairman said this was the conclusion that could be drawn after the first day of proceedings on Aug 21.
He said the figures were hidden somewhere in BNM’s reports.
Sidek said, for example, the 1992 losses were concealed as reserves.
“Who was responsible for asking it to be hidden?” he had asked in summarising the first day’s hearing on Aug 21.
In response, Haniff then stood up and told Sidek that such a finding on a daily basis would confuse the public.
He said it was premature for the chairman to reach such a conclusion because other witnesses need to be questioned to determine what happened.
The RCI was set up on July 1 amid claims and denials over Mahathir’s involvement in the scandal, which saw billions of ringgit worth of losses by the central bank.
Sidek, who is a former chief secretary to the government, also headed the special task force which was set up on Feb 15.
The RCI is tasked with getting to the bottom of the forex losses of US$10 billion (about RM25 billion based on the exchange rate at the time) incurred by the central bank between 1991 and 1993.
