FORMER finance minister and deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said it was a lie that he was concerned about having to resign from his finance portfolio if Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) foreign exchange (forex) losses in the early 1990s were made public.

Hitting out at former BNM assistant governor Abdul Murad Khalid, who made the claim, Anwar said “his malicious insinuation is clear – that I had implied a cover-up was needed”.

“That allegation is false. I never said that to him. I should stress that there was no need for me to say such a thing to a functionary like Murad, who was sent by BNM governor Jaffar Hussein to brief me on technical aspects of the accounting done by BNM and the contents of their annual report,” he said.

Anwar, now PKR de facto leader and in jail on a sodomy charge, was responding to Murad’s testimony on August 21 before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the central bank’s forex losses. 

Murad had said that he had informed Anwar about the losses two years after he had discovered it. The briefing to Anwar was done on a flight to Hawaii in early 1994, he claimed.

Murad, who was BNM adviser at the time, said Anwar commented that he would have to resign as finance minister if the public knew the scale of the losses. 

Anwar, who was finance minister from 1991 and 1998, said in a statement today that he never made such a remark to Murad, and that he had always dealt directly with Jaffar.

He said it was only that one time that he had dealt with someone else (Murad) on BNM matters.

Anwar added that he had been dealing with BNM’s forex losses since April 1993, when he replied in Parliament based on figures and information in BNM’s published 1992 report and in the central bank’s briefings to him.  

He also did the same again in Parliament in April 1994, based on BNM’s 1993 report and its updates to him, he said.

The Pakatan Harapan de facto leader said Murad has been “personally hostile” towards him since 1999, when the latter published a sworn statutory declaration making false accusations against Anwar having RM3 billion in various bank accounts while he was finance minister.

“This declaration was investigated by the then Anti-Corruption Agency and found to be completely baseless. 

“A High Court judge affirmed these findings and said ‘the declaration had been discredited’ when he ruled in my favour in my libel suit against the New Straits Times, which wrote an article referring to the declaration,” Anwar said.

He also expressed his concern at not being allowed to attend the RCI hearings, despite making numerous requests through his lawyers based on the fact that his name had been mentioned numerous times by some witnesses in the proceedings.

“I am, without question, a person who is ‘concerned’ with the proceedings of the inquiry, as provided for under section 18 of the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950. 

“Yet, I am only able to follow the proceedings with much difficulty through limited contact with my lawyers at Sungai Buloh prison.

“I would consider it quite unjust if other witnesses are allowed to make prejudicial allegations against me in front of the RCI and I am not allowed to make my response to them in the same manner,” he said. – August 24, 2017.