PUTRAJAYA, Aug 18 — The Court of Appeal today unanimously rejected Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's application to defer proceedings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) 1990s currency trading losses starting next Monday.

Court of Appeal judge Datuk Zawawi Salleh said the three-man panel that he chaired was "not persuaded” that they should allow Dr Mahathir's application.

"We are of the view that the proceedings of the RCI should be continued,” he said in court today, giving no order as to costs.

The other Court of Appeal judges on the panel were Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli and Datuk Kamardin Hashim.

The RCI is scheduled to conduct its inquiry for 10 days starting on Monday, with the other days being August 24, 29, 30 and September 6, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21.

Yesterday, Dr Mahathir filed for an appeal at the Court of Appeal against the High Court’s refusal to hear his lawsuit to disqualify two RCI members, along with this stay application to freeze the RCI proceedings pending his appeal.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday dismissed Dr Mahathir’s application for leave for judicial review to ultimately remove the RCI panel’s chairman, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, and fellow commissioner Tan Sri Saw Choo Boon.

Dr Mahathir's lawyer, Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, told the Court of Appeal today it was within its jurisdiction to issue the stay order, and that deferring the RCI’s proceedings would not be seen as opposing the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's decree for its formation.

Noting that the RCI panel met about three weeks after the Agong assented to it on July 15, he further said how the panel conducts its inquiry or how many sittings it holds is on its own discretion and not decided by the ruler.

Mohamed Haniff agreed that an RCI is meant for public interest, but highlighted that the RCI panel was itself formed to investigate a decades-old matter.

"A short stay for one week or two weeks would not damage public confidence, it would instill public confidence,” he later argued, having said that the stay order is necessary for public confidence in the RCI.

His fellow counsel, Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali, similarly said: "I think the most important fact was we have three months, why did the RCI only convene on August 8 and these three months can be extended. So what is the loss to stay at least next week and come back on this very urgent basis?”

Datuk Amarjeet Singh, the Attorney-General's Chambers' civil division head who led the government's legal team, countered that there were "no special circumstances” for the stay order to be granted and claimed that Dr Mahathir's legal team was relying on "speculation”.

"We must understand right now, there's nobody on trial and the commission is set up in the public's interest, everybody wants to know what happened,” he said when arguing for the RCI proceedings to continue on Monday as scheduled.

While acknowledging that Dr Mahathir cannot challenge the RCI's findings in court and will be left without a legal remedy, however, Amarjeet argued that this was because a RCI panel's findings have no legal force and are only aimed at advising the government on further action including standard operating procedures. 

Last Wednesday, Dr Mahathir sued to stop Mohd Sidek and Saw from sitting on the RCI panel probing a 23-year-old alleged financial scandal, citing the need to prevent prejudice and highlighting that they were previously on a special task force panel which recommended this RCI.

In his lawsuit, Dr Mahathir sought a court order to quash the RCI panel’s decision last Tuesday to not disqualify the duo, and another court order to compel the government to immediately advise the Yang Di-pertuan Agong to revoke or terminate royal consent for the duo’s appointment to the panel.

Dr Mahathir, now the chairman of Opposition pact Pakatan Harapan, also sought a court order to stop the commissioners from carrying out their roles or conducting the RCI proceedings until the end of the lawsuit.

Dr Mahathir was the prime minister during the 1990s when Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) was alleged to have incurred billions of ringgit of foreign exchange (forex) losses, an issue that will be examined by this RCI panel in 10 scheduled days of hearings within these two months.

The seven respondents named in Dr Mahathir’s lawsuit were Mohd Sidek, Saw, their three fellow commissioners Datuk Kamaludin Md Said, Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan, Pushpanathan SA Kanagarayar, the RCI secretary Datuk Yusof Ismail and the government of Malaysia.