Bibliotheca | Pursuit of a Malaysian Dreamhttp://bibliotheca.limkitsiang.com/

The BMF loans scandal is the Scandal of Scandalswhose full story has not yet been toldPress Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for KotaMelaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the official launching of the DAP book on BMF: Scandal of Scandals at theDAP PJ Headquarters on Monday, April 28, 1986 at 12 noon.

The BMF loans scandal is the Scandal of Scandals whose full story has not yet been told

Despite the 18 Volumes of Reports, Exhibits and Recommendations of the Ahmad Nordin InquiryCommittee on the $2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) loans scandal, its full story has stillto be told.

This is why the Inquiry Committee recommended further investigations in many important areas of thescandal, and why the DAP pressed for the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into theBMF Scandal to pursue the fresh leads provided by the Inquiry Committee, and get to the bottom ofthe scandal.

The Government continues to be engaged in a cover-up operation and wants the people to believethat four persons, Lorraine Osman, Hshim Shamsuddin, Rais Saniman and Ibrahim Jaffar, were solelyresponsible for the biggest theft and fraud of public funds in Malaysia.

Right-thinking Malaysians reject such simplistic answers. If the Government has nothing to hide, itshould welcome a Royal Commission of Inquiry to clear once and for all the doubt and suspicions ofhigh-level political involvement in the BMF scandal.

In rejecting out-of-hand the new demand for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the BMF Scandal, theGovernment is drawing further suspicion and doubt about high-level political involvement in thescandal.

If an Inquiry Committee, with limited powers and restricted terms of reference, could throw so muchlight on the BMF scandal, a Royal Commission of Inquiry should be able to expose the many areas ofdarkness in the scandal.

One exhibit in the two-volume exhibits which were originally emitted, shows that in 1979 and 1980,Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Bhd. (BBMB) had excessive money which it could lend out throughforeign exchange and money market operation. In 1980, Petronas was to deposit M$50 million amonth with BBMB. This led to the problem of finding an outlet to these excess funds and BMF inHong Kong was selected as a vehicle to channel part of the money to them. And as another BBMBinternal memo put it, with the repeated upward revision of the BMFs lending limit from BBMB headoffice and branches, BMF will emerge as a dynamic financial institution.

The excuse that the BBMB Management in Kuala Lumpur, or the political leadership, were unaware ofthe BMF scandal strains credibility to the limit. This BBMB internal memo has reinforced suspicion thata considerable part of the BMF money was in fact Malaysias petrodollars, which were used by BBMBto finance George Tans Carrian operations.

The question that we want to ask is how much of the $2.5 billion in the BMF scandal was actuallyPetronas money, and in buying over Bank Bumiputra and BMF, was Petronas merely setting of its baddebts with BBMB and BMF?

On 25th March 1986, UMNO National Vice President and Barisan Nasional Secretary-General,

page 1 / 2

Bibliotheca | Pursuit of a Malaysian Dreamhttp://bibliotheca.limkitsiang.com/

Ghaffar Baba, said in Malacca that the opposition should also share the blame for the BMF scandal,for it had failed in its role as a watch-dog.

I find Ghaffar Babas accusation, at a time when the Government wants to impose a mandatoryminimum one-year jail sentence for any offence under the Official Secrets Act 1972, the best exampleof how UMNO and Barisnan leaders are trying to throw red gerrings to distract public attention fromtheir responsibility for the BMF scandal.

All Malaysians, regardless of race or party affiliation, must find the BMF Scandal abominable anddemand its thorough expose and the punishment of the persons responsible however high theirpolitical status.

Malaysians must understand the enormity of the crimes involved and the complete breakdown of themoral values of a clean, efficient and trustworthy system in the BMF scandal, if we are to ensurethat there would not be a recurrence.

It is for this reason that this book on my three speeches, two in Parliament and one outside, on theBMF Final Report, is published in book-form, in the hope that it would lead to greater public demandsfor higher standards of public accountability and integrity.

Malaysians must ensure that BMF Scandal does not become the biggest cover-up in Malaysian history

Furthermore, it is to arouse public ousness about the many unanswered questions in the BMF scandalto ensure that it does not become the biggest cover-up in Malaysian history.

With the publication of this book, BMF Scandal of Scandals, the DAP wants to re-open the publicdebate on the biggest banking and financial scandal in Malaysia.

The Book is entitled Scandal of Scandals because the BMF Scandal encompasses within it at leastten separate scandals. There is not only the scandal of the BMF in Hong Kong and the conspiracywith George Tan to defraud and steal $2.5 billion of Malaysian funds, there are also the scandals ofthe failures, irresponsibility, negligence of Bank Bumiputra, Bank Negara, the Auditors, theAttorney-General, political leadership, Parliament, the murder of Jalil Ibrahim, etc.

The book, which is priced at $4 in English, will be published in Chinese, Bahasa Malaysia and Tamil. Ifits publication could help to ensure a more responsible and accountable Government, then its purposewould have been served.

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

page 2 / 2