KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) today distanced itself from its former president Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim in his spat with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), saying that the former's opinions do not represent the organisation.
In a short statement issued this morning, TI-M stressed that Tunku Abdul Aziz's views were conveyed "of his own accord" and did not reflect the non-governmental organisation's stance.
“TI-Malaysia can confirm that whilst Tunku Aziz was the first President of TI-Malaysia, he is no longer a TI member, nor actively involved with the organisation," TI-M President Datuk Akhbar Satar said in the statement.
Akhbar added that any position taken by TI on the issue will be communicated directly by TI-M.
It is understood that TI-M was referring to Tunku Abdul Aziz's allegations of "outrageously questionable ventures" during Dr Mahathir's 22-year tenure as prime minister, including the Bumiputera Malaysia Finance Limited (BMF) scandal that cost nearly US$1 billion (RM3.8 billion) in two botched loan deals without any remedy.
In his column in English daily New Straits Times last May, Tunku Abdul Aziz claimed that unlike Dr Mahathir’s “horrendous financial scandal”, the country will “get a lot faster to the bottom of 1MDB’s shortcomings” in Malaysia’s “current climate of openness” under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s reign.
Dr Mahathir — who has been Najib's most vocal critic over the latter's handling of 1MDB — however, denied he had anything to do with the money lost by BMF in the 1980s scandal.
The former prime minister insisted that the money lost by BMF "belonged to the bank" and not the country.
