by Chairman of All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Honour and National Integrity, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 19th February 1994:
All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Honour and National Integrity to ask Mahathir for a copy of the secret MOU on the RM5 billion Malaysian purchase of British defence hardware which he signed with Margaret Thatcher in 1988
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Parliamentary Honour and National Integrity will write to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, to ask for a copy of the secret memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the RM5 billion purchase of British defence hardware which he signed with the then British Premier, Margaret Thatcher in September 1988.
According to the latest revelations in the British press, under the secret memorandum, Margaret Thatcher agreed to supply the Malaysian Government with a list of firms supplying arms, aircraft and ships, and advising on companies the British Government regarded as most reliable.
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee will also ask the Prime Minister for a full list of the local agents of the British companies which had been successful in the various arms deal as a result of this memorandum of understanding to ascertain as to whether any favouritism, irregularity or hanky-panky had been involved.
The on-going revelations and allegations in the British press and British Parliament in the past two months about the ‘arms for aids’ scandal, involving the RM5 billion Malaysian purchase of British defence hardware, the RM1.8 billion Pergau hydro-electric dam, and most recently, the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance scandal, must concern all Malaysian Parliamentarians and citizens as they affect adversely on the credibility and integrity both of Malaysian and British Governments.
The latest revelations and allegations in the British press and the British Parliament which affect Malaysia include:
Allegations of bribery and corruption in the RM5 billion Malaysian purchase of British defence hardwares;
That Mahathir and Margaret Thatcher had reached a secret pact on a ‘mathematical formula’ linking the British aid for the Pergau dam to the size of the Malaysian defence orders.
That a handful of leading building and engineering companies with close links to the Conservative Party and Government of Britain had been the main beneficiaries of Britain’s industrial overseas and programme, which had been illegally tied to the arms trade, and that these companies are led by Balfour Beatty, the joint contractor on the Pergau dam project.
The naming of two other companies, Trafalgar House and GEC, which have won extensive contracts in Malaysia, as main parties in the controversy.
The Prime Minister and the Cabinet Ministers had been strangely silent on the on-going revelations and allegations in the British Press and Parliament which tarnish the reputation of the Malaysian government.
This is in sharp contrast to the Cabinet reaction to the Sydney Sunday Telegraph report of January 16 alleging that opposition MPs and politicians in Malaysia had been bribed by Australian spies.
However, when the Canberra Times on February 3 reported that the Malaysian MPs and politicians who had been bribed by Australian spies until four years ago where government and UMNO politicians, the Cabinet showed utter indifference to the serious allegations of ‘traitors’ inside the government parties.
Mahathir and the Cabinet Ministers should explain why they nave maintained such a protracted silence on the British revelations and allegations.