KUALA LUMPUR: The opposition is using the United States Department of Justice’s (DoJ) suit relating to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to divert the people’s attention from Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) foreign exchange (forex) market losses in the 1980s and 1990s.
Umno information chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa said the cabinet’s decision to form a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to probe the losses, which allegedly occurred during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure as prime minister, had created panic among the opposition.
“We all know who was responsible for this fiasco and the opposition are in chaos because they cannot afford to lose Mahathir Mohamad with the general election coming.
“They know that, if the facts come out, the people would see the opposition and its leadership for what they really are. This could cause huge damage to them in the election,” said Annuar in a statement today.
The government last week announced its decision to form an RCI on the forex losses after a special task force, headed by former chief secretary to the government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, presented its report to the cabinet.
After three months of probing, the task force found that the total forex losses were “different and higher” than the RM5.7 billion reported to Parliament and the cabinet at the time.
Annuar, who is also Ketereh MP, said the opposition had no choice but to use the DoJ report to dredge up the issue surrounding 1MDB.
“This is simply a diversion tactic. It was the opposition and their proxies who briefed DoJ, shamefully and treasonously calling for foreign intervention in our sovereign democratic nation just to serve their selfish political agenda,” he claimed.
Annuar said the opposition was trying to manipulate the DoJ to not only shift the focus away from the soon-to-formed RCI, but also from the internal crisis of confidence engulfing Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM).
He was referring to calls by several PPBM members who had called for an investigation to be carried out on the source of wealth allegedly amassed by Dr Mahathir and his family.
Dr Mahathir is the chairman of PPBM, which had entered Pakatan Harapan with DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara to contest against BN in the upcoming 14th General Election.
It was recently alleged that Dr Mahathir had paid US$5 million (RM21.3 million) to the Clinton Foundation so that the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) would file the civil action relating to 1MDB.
Although the PPBM chairman has yet to respond to the allegation, PPBM Armada chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman had last week lodged a police report against blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin for alleging that he was part of the inner circle behind the civil suit.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali on Tuesday said he concluded that the suit was politically motivated as the DoJ did not ask for any statement or official information from the attorney-general's office on the allegations it made against 1MDB.
DoJ is seeking to recover US$540 million (RM2.3 billion) in assets from 1MDB in the civil action.
These include artwork, jewellery and film rights that it alleged were bought with misappropriated funds.
In July last year, DoJ led a civil suit seeking the forfeiture and recovery of more than US$1 billion in assets linked to what it described as an “international conspiracy to launder funds misappropriated” from 1MDB, the largest case ever brought by the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.