KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad lost his credibility after he denied involvement in the foreign exchange scandal that reportedly cost taxpayers US$10 billion, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak has claimed.
In a blog posting yesterday, the multimedia and communications minister said Dr Mahathir’s denial on the matter only exposed his hypocrisy.
“As much as he is attempting to explain away the issue and treat them as if they are not material, it invariably reveals his hypocrisy and double standards,” he said.
“Without question the CIA report exposes Mahathir’s responsibility in this mega-billion loss suffered by the country. And as usual Mahathir blames others except himself for this financial disaster,” he added.
“While Mahathir refuses to accept responsibility for the BMF and Forex scandals, he is using the 1MDB issue as an excuse to topple the Prime Minister,” he added.
The forex scandal made headlines again after state-owned paper New Straits Times published an interview with former BNM assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid in which he claimed the central bank suffered foreign exchange losses of US$10 billion in the early 1990s.
Prior to the interview the media reported about the declassified CIA papers which linked his administration to the Bumiputera Malaysia Finance Limited (BMF) scandal in the 1980s.
The former prime minister has since downplayed the report, saying that it did not directly link himself to the scandal, and was merely a normal information paper for the US government back then.
Salleh said the latest revelations linking him to both scandals meant Dr Mahathir had no right to criticise and demand Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to step down.
“The BMF and Forex scandals makes Mahathir the last person in Malaysia qualified and credible enough to ask Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to step down from office citing 1MDB as the excuse,” he said.
