KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak yesterday added to the chorus of voices expressing concern over the ringgit's free fall, which has breached the RM4 mark against the US dollar.
In a posting on photo sharing site Instagram, he posted yesterday’s front page of digitaledge DAILY with the headline "FBM KLCI approaches 1,600 level, ringgit breaches 4 vs USD".
"Terrible time to be distracted by politics and so much negative media coverage. Our best, most credible and crisis experienced finance team needs to be put in front of markets urgently," wrote Nazir.
The ringgit is Asia's worst performing currency in the past year, and it breached the RM4 mark on Wednesday to register 4.0075 to the US dollar, the weakest level since September 1998.
Many have attributed the ringgit's poor performance to the worsening global outlook, China's surprise devaluation of the yuan, plunging commodity prices, and the current political scandals linked to the prime minister.
Najib is currently facing intense scrutiny over the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) "donation" from a Middle Eastern country into his personal accounts while at the same time, his brainchild, state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) is facing multiple probes into alleged financial irregularities.
The country is also suffering from a perception of interference when Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail was abruptly replaced as Attorney-General, while the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission offices were raided and its officers were detained for questioning by the police over alleged leak of information related to 1MDB.
Malaysians had been dismayed with the continued plunge of the ringgit and despite suggestions from some quarters, including former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to peg the currency, Putrajaya said it has no plans to do so.
AirAsia Bhd group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes on Wednesday told Putrajaya to focus on resolving the ringgit's free fall instead of being preoccupied with other matters such as restricting social media. — The Malaysian Insider
This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 14, 2015.