Kit Siang attacks Ku Li for talking about Bank Negara forex losses

(FMT) – Lim Kit Siang says he still believes the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) foreign currency dealings was politically motivated, as he hit out at Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah today for calling for its recommendations to be implemented.

The veteran politician said Razaleigh’s call was in contrast with his inaction over the 1MDB scandal during the Najib Razak administration.

“Maybe Tengku Razaleigh should explain what he did to stop the 1MDB scandal during the Najib premiership and what he has done in the past 14 months to cleanse Umno of global kleptocracy,” he asked.

Putrajaya recently said there would be “no further action” on the findings of the inquiry, which among others recommended that Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim be investigated over their role in the losses suffered in the 1990s. They were the prime minister and deputy prime minister at the time.

Lim said he had previously questioned the manner in which the RCI report was circulated to MPs on the last day of Parliament “without any notice whatsoever and without any opportunity for MPs to debate it!”

He said two internal reports by BNM prepared under former governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz were never made public by the RCI.

“I had asked why in presenting the top political leaders and public servants in the 1990s as a cast of villains because of Bank Negara’s forex losses, the role of Najib Razak who was then a Cabinet minister was omitted and whether the top political leaders and public servants of the day were prepared to answer why they aided and abetted the public charade that the greatest corruption scandal in the nation’s history, the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money laundering scandal, did not exist although Malaysia was regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy,” said Lim.