DR M TO TESTIFY ON MONDAY
Former PM wants to go through documents to prepare himself
FORMER prime minister Tun D r M ahathir Mohamad will testify before the Royal Commission Inquiry (RCI) investigating Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) foreign exchange (forex) losses in the 1980s and 1990s on Monday.
His counsel, Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, said he accepted a subpoena on behalf of Dr Mahathir yesterday.
Haniff said Dr Mahathir was scheduled to appear before the commission at 11am.
“I received the subpoena on Dr Mahathir’s behalf at 2.35pm today (yesterday) as he is in Kedah for the royal funeral. I have also received instructions from him. “So, I have prepared a letter to be sent tomorrow to the RCI secretariat to ask when the commission will send its officers to record Dr Mahathir’s statement, as well as a request for all documents that the conducting officers and panel intend to refer to during the proceedings to be handed over to us by 3pm on Friday.”
He said this was to facilitate Dr Mahathir in giving his testimony as the incident occurred more than 20 years ago.
“It is only fair to let him (Dr Mahathir) read, go through the documents and digest the matter before testifying, as the matter was back then.
“If the RCI says they are not going to prepare a witness statement like they did for the witnesses that had testified before them previously, they will have to answer to the public on why he (Dr Mahathir) is being treated differently,” Haniff told the New Straits Times.
Haniff also stressed that Dr Mahathir was reserving his right in maintaining that the RCI was not properly constituted.
On Aug 9, Dr Mahathir filed an application for leave at the High Court to initiate a judicial review to challenge the appointments of Petroliam Nasional Bhd chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan as the RCI chairman, and Special Task Force on Facilitating Businesses (Pemudah) co-chairman Tan Sri Saw Choo Boon as a panel member.
The application was filed on grounds that the composition of the RCI was against natural justice as Sidek and Saw were earlier involved in the Special Task Force probing the case, and had recommended to the cabinet to set up the commission to investigate the BNM forex losses in the 1990s.
A total of 21 witnesses had testified, with the last being former opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.