‘Cabinet to decide if inquiry needed’
Probe into Bank Negara’s forex losses still under discussion, says Khairy
PUTRAJAYA: The Cabinet will decide whether an official inquiry should be launched on Bank Negara’s alleged losses in the foreign exchange market in the 1990s, says Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.
He said the matter was discussed at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday and would be brought up again next Wednesday before a decision is made on the official probe.
“This matter needs to be examined carefully. Firstly, it involves an incident or a scandal that happened over 20 years ago.
“We need to remember that some people who had held positions back then are no longer around, such as former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Jaffar Hussein, who has passed away.
“But we must also understand that this incident saw one of the biggest losses by any central bank in history. That the forex speculation had taken place was an established fact and this had also been admitted by Bank Negara,” said Khairy.
“The issue here is the scale of losses. Whether or not there was a cover-up to hide the scale of losses.
“And who had participated and instructed a cover-up, if indeed there was a cover-up. That is the issue,” he said after the Jalur Gemilang handover ceremony for the Malaysian Asian Winter Games 2017 contingent.
Khairy was asked to comment on whether a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was necessary to look into the Bank Negara forex losses.
Among those who had called for the RCI were Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak and Umno Youth deputy chief Khairul Azwan Harun.
Former Bank Negara assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid was reported to have claimed that the central bank suffered US$10bil in forex market losses in the early 1990s, far higher than it had admitted.
Abdul Murad questioned why no one was investigated or charged over the losses.
But we must also understand that this incident saw one of the biggest losses by any central bank in history. Khairy Jamaluddin.