MALAYSIANS may never learn the truth of the scope of the losses by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) owing to the differences in witnesses’ accounts about the atitude and behavior of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim towards the losses.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), which began on August 21 and ended this morning, also saw contradictory statements from some of the 25 witnesses called.

Former second finance minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who was BNM adviser during the period of the losses, said that up until 1993, he did not inform the then prime minister Dr Mahathir nor Anwar, the finance minister, of the losses.

Former Treasury official, Clifford Francis Herbert said that he did, in a meeting in late 1993 in which Anwar, then former finance minister, was also present.

Herbert said the losses had amounted to RM30 billion and when informed of this, he said Dr Mahathir responded with “sometimes we make profits and sometimes we make losses”.

Dr Mahathir denied Herbert’s account yesterday.

Both the former prime minister and Anwar said they only knew of RM5.7 billion in losses as reported in BNM’s audited annual report to the Cabinet, a figure repeated in Parliament.

On the royal commission of inquiry’s attempt to uncover whether Dr Mahathir and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin had known of BNM’s aggressive forex trading and allowed it, both men said the central bank operated autonomously and was not required to report to them.

There were also contradictions between the testimonies of former senior government auditor P Kanason Pothinker and head of Advisory Services at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Ainum Mohamed Saaid.

Kanason said that following his investigation into the high forex exposure, he was told by Ainum that “higher-ups” had instructed him not to interfere in the matter.

Ainum denied this.

The inquiry also saw testimonies of poor quality, due to the age of some witnesses, some of whom were in their 70s and 80s. They were hazy on dates, names and figures.

Former auditor-general Ishak Tadin, 85, who was listed as a witness did not appear today as scheduled due to his health and memory loss, according to his son who briefly took the witness stand.

Access to documents barred

All 42 documents which the RCI, headed by former Petronas chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan, will base its findings on, are not publicly available and some are protected under the Official Secrets Act, making independent verification impossible.

These include audit reports which recorded the central bank’s losses as RM31.5 billion from 1991 to 1994, according to the RCI’s first witness, former BNM account manager Abdul Aziz Abdul Manaf.

Also, the figure of US$10 billion in losses, as alleged by former BNM adviser and later assistant governor Abdul Murad Khalid, was never substantiated.

Murad never explained how he arrived at the figure and a request by Dr Mahathir’s lawyer, Haniff Kathri Abdulla for Murad to be recalled, was rejected today.

Access to other material that was not classified under the Official Secrets Act was also denied, said lawyers representing Dr Mahathir and Anwar.

Court reporters were only able to rely on the testimonies and the ensuing question and answer dialogue.

Watching brief lawyers told reporters today that the barring of documents was unprecedented in a public inquiry.

On the stand, witnesses, who included former traders and administrative managers at BNM, testified to the lax rules that governed forex trading at the time and also to the lack of administrative oversight as the central bank began to aggressively pursue the activity.

Former staffers maintained that they operated within their job scope and testified that they never had the full picture of the losses or were oblivious to them until it was too late.

Testimony also showed that issues were usually never raised beyond their supervisors, indicating a culture that did not question authority in the face of mounting losses.

The RCI will present its findings on October 13 to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong. – September 19, 2017.