LAWYERS representing Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim have accused the Bank Negara (BNM) forex trading royal commission of inquiry of pursuing a line of questioning that suggests the former prime minister and his former deputy knew about the losses and had purposely concealed them.

Lawyers for the former prime minister and deputy prime minister said the RCI, led by Petronas chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan, was “jumping to conclusions” at yesterday’s hearing.

“There seems to be some pre-disposition to suggest that the speeches Anwar gave in Parliament were concealing some matters that he knew about before,” said Gurdial Singh, Anwar’s lawyer.

“We’ve asked the RCI if it is going to call Anwar? We should have an inquiry that is open and transparent.

“They are talking about forex losses to see whether there was transparency then. So the proceedings today must also be transparent. If not, they should not be looking at other people’s transparency,” he said. 

At the hearing yesterday, former Treasury deputy secretary-general Clifford Francis Herbert alleged that he was instructed by Anwar, who was also the finance minister then, to look into the losses suffered by the central bank in the 1990s.

Herbert said he had written a note to inform Anwar that the central bank had lost about RM30 billion in leveraged forex trading.

Herbert also alleged that he and Anwar met with Dr Mahathir in late-1993, to speak to him about the losses.

Dr Mahathir and Anwar’s lawyers have told reporters that they were denied access to documents that Herbert’s testimony was based on. 

Dr Mahathir’s lawyer, Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla said the RCI was “not conducting itself in a manner” that was in “everybody’s interest.”

“When it comes to Anwar and Dr Mahathir, our conduct was limited to asking questions without being provided with the documentation on which the statements are based.”

Hanif said it was time the RCI decided whether either or both men would be called to testify.

“The members of the public are asking us whether Dr Mahathir is coming. They don’t know that it’s actually the RCI that decides. Dr Mahathir cannot decide whether he wants to come or not.” 

Rather than insinuate that the two men were connected to the bank’s losses via the witnesses’ testimonies, the RCI should level questions directly at Dr Mahathir and Anwar, who would appear if they were subpoenaed, said the lawyers.

“The RCI must be brave enough to accuse them. Call them up.” 

Former central bank assistant governor Abdul Murad Khalid has alleged that BNM’s forex trading losses in the 1990s amounted to US$10 billion.

Dr Mahathir has maintained that the losses amounted to about RM10 billion, as stated in BNM’s 1994 annual report. He blamed the losses on Jaffar Hussein, who was BNM governor at the time, and then assistant governor Nor Mohamed Yakcop.

Murad has also named Nor Mohamed in his statement, saying he encouraged forex trading that amounted to hundreds of million ringgit in turnover daily.

Jaffar died in 1998 while Nor Mohamed went on to serve as second finance minister in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration. – August 31, 2017.