‘I WOULD HAVE SACKED NOR MOHAMED’
DATUK SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM WAS AWARE TAN SRI NOR MOHAMED YAKCOP PLAYED A BIG PART IN BANK NEGARA MALAYSIA’S FOREX LOSSES, AND WOULD HAVE REMOVED HIM AS BNM ADVISER IF HE HAD NOT STEPPED DOWN. ANWAR DESCRIBES AS 'ABSURD' THE STATEMENT BY NOR MOHAMED THAT TH
DATUK Seri Anwar Ibrahim said former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) adviser Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop had overstepped his boundaries in regard to the foreign exchange (forex) trading at BNM.
The former finance minister said he would have sacked Nor Mohamed if the latter had not stepped down of his own free will because of the mess.
“When (then governor) Tan Sri Jaafar Hussein said that he was going to step down because of this mess, I told him not to because I knew that it wasn’t him that was at fault, it was Nor Mohamed,” he said.
Appearing as a long-awaited witness at the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) yesterday, Anwar added: “I told him that it was Nor Mohamed that should step down, which he did.
“But even if he had not, I would have sacked him.”
Anwar said Jaafar agreed with him that Nor Mohamed should step down, but explained that he (Jaafar) also had to go as the governor of the bank as he had to be fully accountable for the mess.
“I am well aware that Nor Mohamed had a big part in this and that’s why I was very surprised when he was later made finance minister.
“I thought how could this be when he cost the country billions in losses?” said Anwar.
It was at this point that RCI member Tan Sri Saw Choo Boon asked if he agreed with Nor Mohamed’s statement that the forex losses were a valuable lesson to the country in withstanding financial challenges.
“Nor Mohamed said the forex scandal was a valuable lesson as it gave the country the crucial know-how on the formulation of the unorthodox measures which helped us withstand the financial challenges during the 1998 Asian financial crisis.
“Do you agree with this?” Saw asked Anwar.
To this, Anwar said: “I think what Nor Mohamed said is absurd because lessons should not cost billions of ringgit.
“We were supposed to manage public funds, not turn them into lessons.”
Anwar was the 21st witness to take the stand in the ongoing RCI probe into the forex scandal of the 1990s, with losses amounting to RM31 billion.
He was the only witness who came into the proceedings without a written statement and, as such, was immediately cross-examined by conducting officer, Julia Ibrahim.
Anwar’s cross-examination, which took almost three hours to complete, was at times intense as he vigorously defended himself against the RCI panel’s insinuations that he withheld information from the cabinet on BNM’s losses back in 1993.
“When you tabled the losses to the cabinet in April 1993, you said that the losses amounted to RM5.7 billion,” said Julia to Anwar.
“As we know now, the losses are bigger than that and you also knew that the amount was bigger than the one you said in Parliament.”
Julia backed these allegations by bringing forward multiple letters and notes that were written by BNM as well as the Auditor General’s (AG) Office to the Finance Ministry in regard to the forex trading activities.
“No, this is not true.
“I didn’t know the total losses as those written in letters and notes were unofficial, unverified drafts from both BNM and the AG,” said Anwar.
“When I tabled to the cabinet in April 1993, I was using information from the BNM 1992 annual report, which was compiled by the central bank and verified by the AG.”
RCI chairman Tan Sri Mohamed Sidek Hassan then interjected: “You claimed you don’t know but one of these letters from the AG had already informed you of the losses, even in 1992.
“How then can you claim that you don’t know the losses?”
Anwar replied: “I am not an accountant by profession.
“When I was alerted to the losses and later briefed by Jaafar himself, it took me to four in the morning to look through all the documents.”
“Yes, I did receive letters and notes from BNM, but these were unofficial drafts and I cannot, as the finance minister, brief my cabinet based on information on drafts.
“I used the BNM 1992 report compiled by BNM and verified by the AG.
“This was information that was true to me.
“In fact, the RM5.7 billion losses were still true to me up till September 2012 when I quoted the same figures in Parliament again, this time as the leader of the opposition.
“It wasn’t until recently that the figure was, apparently, wrong,” he added.
He said the information furnished to him was deemed true at that time, and to judge his actions with information recently uncovered was not right.
“I did take the steps that were needed.
“I alerted the cabinet to the verified information that I had from BNM and the AG, and directed the bank to cease forex trading in April 1993.”
Anwar added that he and former Finance Ministry secretarygeneral Clifford Francis Herbert briefed then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad of the losses before going to the cabinet, but did not receive any directions from Dr Mahathir on how to handle the forex scandal.”
To this, Saw said: “It seemed that you had taken this issue very seriously.
“Are you maintaining that you handled this on your own, without the help of your boss (Dr Mahathir)?”
Anwar replied: “My boss was very supportive of me up until 1998,” which made the court erupt into laughter.
The RCI has been tasked with identifying the cause of BNM’s forex losses, amounting to some RM31 billion in the early 1990s. Additional reporting by Hana Naz Harun
I am well aware that Nor Mohamed had a big part in this and that’s why I was very surprised when he was later made finance minister. I thought how could this be when he cost the country billions in losses? DATUK SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM
former finance minister
Page 1 pic: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim leaving the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya yesterday.