Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

(May 7): Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim has refused to be drawn further on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's rebuttal to his newspaper column in which he criticised the financial scandals that took place during the former prime minister's 22-year tenure.

In his usual acerbic style, Dr Mahathir had said Tunku Aziz should use his role as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory board chairman to focus on businessman Low Taek Jho, more popularly known as Jho Low, and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's stepson Riza Aziz if he was really concerned about corruption.

"I'm sorry but I have no comments to make," Tunku Aziz said when contacted by The Malaysian Insider today.

Writing in his blog yesterday, Malaysia's longest serving prime minister responded to Tunku Aziz's May 4 column in English daily New Straits Times in which he had cited Bank Bumiputera as one of the financial scandals during Dr Mahathir's administration and said there was more transparency now which would enable Malaysia to uncover and resolve scandals involving debt-laden 1MDB.

“We will, in our current climate of openness, get a lot faster to the bottom of 1MDB’s shortcomings, if indeed there are problems, than we got out of the investigations into financial and other excesses during the lost ethical years when Dr Mahathir was prime minister,” said Tunku Aziz.

“Soon after Dr Mahathir took over the reins of government, a horrendous financial scandal engulfed Bank Bumiputera Berhad, incorporated in 1978 as the vehicle to launch the Malays into business.

“The bank had shifted large sums to its wholly owned subsidiary, Bumiputera Malaysia Finance Limited (BMF), which lent nearly US$1 billion to a company called Plessey Investment and another called Carrian Investment Limited. Carrian later went bankrupt and ‘billions disappeared into thin air’," Tunku Aziz said.

He said a committee set up in Malaysia to investigate the scandal recommended that criminal proceedings be taken against those involved, but no action took place in Malaysia.

Najib, however, has ordered the auditor-general to probe into 1MDB, which is owned by the government, added Tunku Aziz.

In response, Dr Mahathir said Tunku Aziz should apologise if no evidence was found against him.

"As a member of the MACC, he can make a full investigation of my record 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," he said in his blog chedet.cc.

He also took jibes at Tunku Aziz, asking him if he had "selective awareness of 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 said.

"Shouldn't he be interested in public servants who are living well beyond their means?"

Low's name had been linked to the controversies surrounding 1MDB, although the businessman has consistently denied his involvement.

Earlier, at a function yesterday, Dr Mahathir rebutted Tunku Aziz's claims, noting that the difference with him was that he was never adviser to BMF, unlike Najib who is chairman of 1MDB's advisory board.

"I don't steal money. The money was missing and it is the bank's money.

"I was not the manager of the bank, neither was I its adviser," Dr Mahathir said, adding that he should not be blamed as he did not cause anyone to lose money.

Dr Mahathir has emerged as Najib's strongest critic, repeatedly faulting him for the losses of strategic development fund 1MDB and for failing to account for it. – The Malaysian Insider

      Print
      Text Size
      Share