Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General
and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP ceramah in Butterworth
on Sunday, January 6, 1985 at 1pm.
Call on all new Bank Bumiputera Board Directors to make statutory
declaration that they have no Swiss Bank accounts and to sign
authorisation to all Swiss Banks to reveal any such accounts.
The Bank Bumiputera Board of Directors was changed a week ago, and this
is an essential pre-condition to the restoration of public confidence in
the Bank Uumiputera after the $2.5 billion Bumiputera Malaysia Finance scandals
The change of the Board of Directors however is only a first step, and
cannot by itself restore public confidence which had been badly shattered
by the biggest banking and financial scandal not only in Malaysia but also
asia.
While the decisions taken by the first meeting of the Bank Bumiputera
Board of Directors a few days ago to establish an internal audit team, to
stop foreign branches of Bank Bumiputera and BMF from issuing loans, and
to reshuffle top executives of the Bank, are commendable starts for the Board,
a more innovative leadership is needed to regain public confidence in the
shortest possible time.
A week ago, when opening the 25th general meeting of the Bank Persatuan
Bekerjasama Seberguna Perai in Butterworth, the Minister for Agriculture
and the UMNO Youth Leader, Anwar Ibrahim, advised commercial banks
to introduce work ethics for efficient management and to keep out corruption.
He also hit out against a certain group of people who deposited money
in Swiss banks whom he described as ‘traitors’.
The DAP calls on all new Bank Bumiputera Board Directors to make_
statutory declarations that they have no Swiss bank accounts, and to sign
an authorisation to all Swiss Banks to reveal any such accounts. Bank
Bumiputera directors who have Swiss bank accounts should close their accounts
within two weeks.
All Bank Bumiputera Board Directors should also make a declaration
of the countries and banks overseas where they have accounts.
Such a measure would be an exemplary ‘Leadership by Example’
and would have a good effect in demonstrating that the new Bank
Bumiputera leadership are fully committed to the rebuilding of Bank Bumiputeras
credibility and integrity and to Malaysia‘s economic and financial future –
unlike some of their predecessors who escape abroad to avoid s full
accounting for their role in the BMF loans scandals.
Should the ACA or the Police be handling the investigations into the BMF Six?
Bank Bumiputera has complied with the recommendations of the ,
fourth report of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee and lodged police
reports against the BMF Six for corruption, breach of trust and other
offences.
But the question is whether the Anti-Corruption agency or the
Police should be handling the investigations into the BWF scandal
and the BMF Six, especially as corrupt practices are involved.
I hope we do not get into a situation where after many more
months have elapsed, the Polioe would pass the buck to the Anti-Corruption
agency to start from the very beginning in investigations into corruption
angle of the BMF loans scandal, Malaysians are clearly entitled to know
why the Anti-Corruption Agency is not involved in a case clearly involving
corrupt practices.
DAP calls for expansion of the scope of reference of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry
Committee to include investigations into the BMF loans to developer Kevin Hsu.
The Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee fourth brief carried reference
to the third biggest BMF debtor, developer Kevin Hsu. According to notes
of meeting between the Bank Negara Governor and the Bank Bumiputera Chairman,
Dr. Nawawi Mat Awin, on Feb 1983, Hong Kong developer Kevin Hsu sold a property
in Singapore which was meant to reduce his debts to BMF, but the returns of the
proceeds had not been received by the BMF. In fact, the loans to the Kevin Hsu
group had increased mainly due to the non-payment of interests;
The Government and Bank Bumiputera had never been able to explain
satisfactorily why the BMF Inquiry Committee‘s terms of reference with regard to
BMF’s bad debts excluded the loans given to Kevin Hsu. There have been rumours
that Kevin Hsu and his wife are well-connected with very powerful personalities
in the country, which led to the exclusion of the BMF Inquiry Committee’s
terms of reference with regard to the Kevin Hsu loans,
If true, this is another gross abuse of power. In view of the Kevin Hsu
reference in the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee’s fourth brief
I call on the new Bank Bumiputera Board of Directors to make a
policy decision to expand the scope of terms of reference of the Ahmad
Nordin Inquiry Committee to include the Kevin Hsu’s loans from BMF,
As stated by the ’Declaration on the Problem of Corruption in Malaysia’ adopted
by three political parties and six non-governmental organisations in the first
in the series of ‘Dialogues of Concern’ initiated by ALIRAN in Kuala Lumpur on
9th September 1984, the BMF loans scandal is the most recent example of corruption
which had shocked the conscience of the nation,
No stone must be left unturned in order to get to the bottom of the
BMF loans scandal, and to give the people of Malayaia a full accounting. I have
very grave doubts that this task could be performed by the BMF Inquiry Committee
headed by the Auditor-General, Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin. This is not because
the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee is incompetent, but because it has been
denied the powers necessary to get to the root of the BMF loans Scandals.
The DAP therefore reiterates its call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry
into the BMF loans scandal. Such a Royal Commission of Inquiry, if established,
need not start from scratch and make the Ahmad Nordin Committee’s work
irrelevant. The Royal Commission could be given terms of reference which recognise
the work done by the Ahmad Nordin Committee of Inquiry, using it as a basis for
continuing its investigations, and by maintaining continuity of investigations
but with expanded powers by having Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin as a member of the Royal
Commission of Inquiry,
I hope that the UMNO Youth and its leader, Anwar Ibrahim, wound support
the DAP’s renewed call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry, as Anwar Ibrahim
should concede that the Committee of Inquiry, as presently empowered, would
not be able to go very far in unravellinq the root cause of the BMF loans scandal
however diligent and responsible the BMF Inquiry Committee members.