BMF, Forex scandals: Mahathir, Kit Siang sour grapes, only RCI can discover truth: Salleh
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak (pix) has described Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Lim Kit Siang as sour grapes and are not comparing apple-to-apple when they said that a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was needed not just for the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) and Bank Negara Forex scandals but also for 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) as well.
The Minister of Communications and Multimedia said that perhaps, Kit Siang and Dr Mahathir overlooked the fact that 1MDB had already been investigated by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a Special Task Force, the Auditor-General, Attorney-General, Royal Malaysia Police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, plus reports regarding the matter prepared.
"Regarding the BMF and Bank Negara Forex scandals, however, no such thing was done and, in fact, at that time Parliament was misinformed about the matter and only today are we discovering the truth," he said in his latest posting on his blog sskeruak.blogspot.my. today.
Salleh said the government's real exposure in 1MDB was only RM1 million, the initial paid up capital, but Dr Mahathir, however, had created the impression that the government lost RM42 billion, which was not true and was a fabrication.
Salleh further explained that the losses in the BMF and Bank Negara-Forex cases were real and substantial as it involved massive capital injections and bail-outs to avoid bankruptcy.
While the finances of 1MDB was an open book, he said that was why an RCI was needed regarding the finances related to the BMF and Bank Negara-Forex scandals "as we are yet to know the truth until today".
"The government has never needed to bail out 1MDB with any capital injection (other than the initial RM1 million capital injection) like in the case of the BMF and Bank Negara-Forex scandals, which cost the country hundreds of billions.
"Even then we do not know how much the amount really was, unlike in 1MDB's case," he added. — Bernama