KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today claimed that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was unable to address the financial crisis that Malaysia was facing in 1990s when given the opportunity to be the acting prime minister.
He said Anwar, who was at the time deputy prime minister, had given the impression that he did not understand the issues that the country was facing, which made him unable to address and solve the issues at the time.
He said Anwar only did things based on the recommendations provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"I realised that when I gave Anwar a chance to become the acting prime minister, he was not able to handle problems, especially when it came to financial crisis.
"It was as if he did not understand the problem, (and) of course when we do not understand the problem, we cannot design a way to address the issue.
"(And) at the time, he liked to follow what was advised by the IMF and the World Bank. Hence, I decided that I could not take a leave and came back to take over my duties," he said during the Keluar Sekejap podcast by former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan.
Following this, Dr Mahathir, who is also former Langkawi member of parliament, said he established a new committee outside the cabinet's jurisdiction to get more in-depth opinions from financial experts.
He added that Anwar, however, was still given the chance to provide views and opinions in the committee.
"Cabinet, as usual, did not have experts, hence, we took experts from outside. I set up a new committee outside the cabinet as I wanted bankers, financiers and lawyers to come together so we could listen to their opinions.
"Anwar was also there and I still allowed him to give his opinion, however, he was more inclined towards the advice given by the IMF and the World Bank."
Dr Mahathir also claimed that Anwar was adamant about following the recommendations, despite warnings that the country might not have enough money to pay people's salaries.
"There were many problems that were caused by the fall in currency value and he followed IMF's recommendations.
"For example, let's say a loan was unsuccessful and non-performing, it (the loan) should be reduced to 30 per cent when it already reached 60 per cent.
"(And) when we reprimand him, he deliberately lowered our currency and we became poor when the currency was low.
"Because of that, our currency dropped and we became poor, where in the past we could buy things for RM100, we now need to pay RM120 or more to get them."