FORMER deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim insisted today he has always been consistent with his statements when he talked about the Bank Negara forex scandal.

He said Putrajaya now wants to use his statement to attack former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who is on a crusade to bring down the Najib administration.

“I have always been consistent with my statement. They want to use it against Dr Mahathir. But I say no, just respond to the facts,” he said.

He said during that time, he had asked then Bank Negara employee Nor Mohamed Yakcop and the governor to resign.

“I asked Nor Mohamed to resign because he was involved. We put a condition that he cannot be part of the financial institution but then he was appointed as the economic financial advisor, then finance minister,” said Anwar.

Anwar at the time was the finance minister under prime minister Mahathir, who held the post for more than 20 years. He passed the baton to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who stepped down few years later to give way to current premier Najib Razak.

Anwar added that one could have a better understanding on the issue by reading through BNM annual report as well as the Hansard.

Anwar was responding to Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Keruak who had accused Anwar of flip-flopping in his statement on the BNM forex scandal.

Salleh in his blog posting yesterday had commented on a press statement by Anwar on the case.

He said the statement appeared to have been tailored for the current political situation Anwar has found himself in.

“When he is with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar says one thing. When he is opposed to Mahathir, he says something else. And now that he is again with Mahathir, Anwar puts a new twist to the story,” Salleh said in his blog.

Salleh said that in 1993, Anwar denied Bank Negara had lost money playing the forex market.

“This was in response to a question that Lim Kit Siang raised in Parliament, which you can check in the Hansard. In 1994, Anwar told Parliament it was a small loss, and only a ‘paper loss’. He also blamed the Bank Negara governor for it and said the governor had been asked to resign,” said Salleh.

Salleh said n 2012, however, Anwar had at a forum in Penang, changed his story.

The forum was also told the loss was US$10 billion and they blamed three people for it – Daim Zainuddin and DrMahathir included.

He said Anwar had now stated something else and blamed just Nor Mohamed.

Salleh said this is why there was a need to further probe the matter.

“If the truth had been revealed 24 years ago we would not still be investigating the matter today,” he said.

The government had on March 14 set up a task force to probe BNM’s forex losses.

Former Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan is heading the probe team.

It will investigate whether there was any move to cover up the losses, and whether misleading statements on the matter were presented to Parliament.

The task force will then submit recommendations on further action to the government, including the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, if necessary, based on the results of the investigation. – April 28, 2017.