PETALING JAYA: DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang's silence over the Bumiputera Malaysia Finance Limited (BMF) scandal proved that his political wings have been clipped by former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Former DAP vice-chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim said, Lim who was once highly vocal of Mahathir regarding the multi-billion scandal, had even published two books criticising the former prime minister in 1983 and 1986.
“Lim, once the self-confessed conscience of the nation, has remained silent on the BMF and the Forex gamble linked to the Mahathir administration.
“Surprising that the man who once ranted and foamed at the mouth in anger over BMF is totally silent as if he has lost the fire in his belly.
“In short, Lim has to tread gently to keep Dr Mahathir sweet. Lim has shown that below the thin veneer of political integrity lies a self-serving opportunist,” he told a press conference at Eastin Hotel here today.
The forex scandal made headlines again after the New Straits Times published an interview with former Bank Negara assistant governor, Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid, in which he claimed that Bank Negara had suffered foreign exchange losses of US$10 billion in the early 1990s.
Just a few days prior, the media reported about the declassified United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) papers which had linked Dr Mahathir's administration to the BMF scandal in the 1980s.
Dr Mahathir has since downplayed the report, saying that it did not directly link himself to the scandal, and was merely a normal information paper for the US government back then.
In support of Dr Mahathir, Lim during a media conference in Penang, said that there was nothing new to the BMF scandal, adding that he was disappointed as there was no new revelation in the document.
Following that, Tunku Aziz urged Lim to declare his stand on the BMF scandal and to make a statutory declaration (SD) that he had never entered into a secret agreement with Dr Mahathir.
"He has to make a SD that he never made such an agreement to support (Dr Mahathir's son) Datuk Seri Mukhriz's candidacy for the position of prime minister, in return for him to be installed as deputy prime minister and concurrently finance minister should Pakatan Harapan (PH) win the next general election.
“Lim's reluctance to make the SD is understandable. He is fearful that if the Malays know what his real intentions are, they would withhold their electoral support for PH, making the DAP presence untenable," Tunku Aziz added.
Recently, Dr Mahathir said that the DAP had requested for its party leader to take the position of deputy prime minister should the opposition win the next general election.
This was in response to Tunku Aziz's earlier claim that a secret pact was made between Lim and Dr Mahathir, in which Lim would have to voice support for Mukhriz to be made prime minister and consequently, Lim would be made deputy prime minister and finance minister.
However, in a U-turn, Dr Mahathir later said that it was MCA which had asked for the deputy prime minister post, not DAP.