PUTRAJAYA: As the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to probe the 1990s foreign exchange (forex) scandal enters its third hearing today, former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has finally made an appearance.
Dr Mahathir arrived at Putrajaya's Palace of Justice at 9.04 this morning, accompanied by his aides.
Yesterday, Dr Mahathir's lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla told the New Straits Times that his team will be raising an issue concerning Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) former assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid's testimony on Monday.
Haniff, during the hearing this morning, questioned Murad's credibility when the latter gave his statement on Monday, claiming that the total forex loss had amounted to RM31.5 billion and that it had been hidden from BNM.
Murad had also claimed that Finance Minister at the time, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, knew about the numbers in 1994 and said that "if the actual losses were made public, I would have to step down as finance minister".
Haniff however questioned why Murad waited for 25 years to reveal the information and "did nothing" all this while.
"Murad made the claims in January this year, after 25 years of allegedly knowing of the forex losses. If this is so, then why did he do nothing for 25 years?
"Won't it be proper and reasonable for him to do so at that point? (in the early 1990s)," he asked.
The RCI was set up following a cabinet meeting, soon after the New Straits Times published an interview with Murad, where he claimed that the central bank has suffered forex losses of US$10 billion in the early 1990’s.
It was also reported at that time, which was during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s premiership, BNM had ventured into speculative currency trading and forex trading with large sums of money, alarming other banking institutions worldwide.