by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, January 17, 1986:
DAP urges Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir, to officially authorise Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin and Chooi Mun Sou to release the BMF final report on condition they assume full responsibility for its publication.
The DAP commends Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin and Chooi Mun Sou for their courageous public-spiritedness in their preparedness to accept full responsibility in publishing the BMF final report.
I urge the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, to officially authorise Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin and Chooi Mun Sou to release the BMF final report on condition that they assume full responsibility for their publication.
This is what the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, had publicly promised, and he could not possibly back-track and renege his words without the office of Prime Minister and the government suffering irreparable damage to their credibility.
The ball is now in the Prime Minister’s court again, and the people expect the Prime Minister to kick the ball into the goal, and not to play foul or decide boycott of play by staging a walk-out!
With the public stand of Tan Sri Ahmad, Nordin and Chooi Mun Sou that they are prepared to publish the BMF final report, and take responsibility for its consequences, the Cabinet’s meeting on Wednesday to to await the views of the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abu Talib, whether the government itself could publish the report becomes irrelevant. This is because Cabinet spokesman, Datuk Rais Yatim, had also said that although the Cabinet gave the Attorney-General two weeks to submit his legal opinion on the government’s publication of the report, this does not pose any obstacles if the BMF committee members want to assume responsibility and publish the report themselves.
In any event, as today’s report from Hong Kong quoted a Hong Kong government official as saying that the publication of the BMF final report of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry would not prejudice the coming BMF, Carrian, George Tan, Lorraine Osman, Hashim Shamsuddin trials, I do not see how Tan Sri Abu Talib could continue to sustain this objection to the publication of the BMF final report.
The time has also come for UMNO Youth Leader, Anwar Ibrahim, to take a stand on the publication of the BMF final report. It was Anwar who was the first to state that Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin and the Committee members should publish the report themselves and take responsibility for their publication. Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin and Chooi Mun Sou have declared their willingness to do precisely what Anwar had suggested, and to take all legal responsibility arising from it. If Anwar does not take a clear public stand that the government should immediately authorise Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin and Chooi Mun Sou to release the BMF final report on their own account, he would have destroyed his reputation as a uncompromising and fearless defender of public and government integrity.
The DAP at its BMF Protest Ceramah to be held at the Kuala Lumpur Chinese Assembly Hall tomorrow night will make an important statement on the $2.5 billion BMF scandal.