KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has questioned why the former assistant governor who exposed the RM31.5 billion lost by Bank Negara Malaysia in the 1990s was not implicated by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the matter.
The former prime minister said in a blog post that Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid appeared to know the extent of the trading losses suffered then, but only came forward nearly three decades later.
“He surely could have exposed all the irregularities and even the officers and auditors involved, but he did not,” Dr Mahathir said.
The former prime minister then used this as part of his campaign to discredit the royal panel as well as its findings that accused him, Tun Daim Zainuddin, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop of various wrongdoings.
The RCI was sparked by an interview Murad gave to a local newspaper, in which he alleged the true losses suffered by BNM through covert currency trading during the Mahathir administration was over RM30 billion.
During the RCI, Abdul Murad, who had assumed the role as manager of the central bank’s Banking Department in April 1992, testified that he only learned of the losses in May of that year.
He maintained that if not for the losses, BNM would have an additional RM100 billion in reserve today.
Despite the completion of the RCI, Dr Mahathir sued yesterday to invalidate its findings.
