KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has challenged Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) adviser Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim to have the anti-corruption body investigate how Jho Low and Riza Aziz accumulated their wealth.

Writing in his blog, Dr Mahathir said he was prepared to be investigated on whether he had misappropriated any government funds during his 22 years as prime minister as insinuated by Tunku Abdul Aziz in an article in the New Straits Times on Monday.

Tunku Abdul Aziz, who is chairman of the advisory board of MACC, had in his column said there were many financial scandals under Dr Mahathir, including the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) losses.

Tunku Abdul Aziz described then BMF chairman Lorrain Esme Osman as a fall guy for the scandal, and implied that someone from “high above” had instructed Lorrain to move the BMF funds.

“Tunku Abdul Aziz tries to pin the BMF scandal on me on the basis of a statement by Lorrain. He assumes that [person] ‘high above’ Lorrain was me.

“There are lots of people high above Lorrain. I will not name them here because I don’t like making inferences when I have no concrete evidence,” Dr Mahathir wrote.

He added that Tunku Abdul Aziz could probe his records to find out how much money he (Dr Mahathir) had allegedly stolen.

“[Tunku Abdul Aziz] can make a full investigation of my records to find out how many billions I stole from the government as he seems to imply.

“If he fails, he should at least have the decency to apologise,” said Dr Mahathir.

Separately, at an event yesterday, Dr Mahathir questioned Tunku Abdul Aziz’s attempts to compare the current 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) controversy with BMF.

Nearly US$1 billion (which was equivalent to RM2.4 billion at the time) was lent by Bank Bumiputra to two investment companies via its wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary, BMF, with one of the companies going bankrupt.

Dr Mahathir said that he did not steal BMF’s money and he held no capacity in the bank or its management and its decision-making process.

He also took jibes at Tunku Abdul Aziz, asking the latter if he had “selective awareness on what’s going on around him”.

“As someone who professes to be concerned about corruption, shouldn’t he ask how Jho Low and Riza Aziz have hundreds of millions of dollars?” Dr Mahathir wrote, referring to the controversial businessman and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s stepson, respectively.

“Shouldn’t he be interested in public servants who are living well beyond their means?” he asked. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 7, 2015.