Press Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, l7.7.l985:
Has the Government given the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee a September deadline to complete its final report and disband?
In his written reply to my parliamentary question yesterday, the Finance Minister, Daim Zainuddin, said that the final report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) loans scandal will be made public in full, except for certain sections which involves banking secrecy.
The Finance Minister’s qualification that sections involving ‘banking secrecy’ would be
censored would in fact give the government the excuse to suppress the material portions
of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee final report. In fact, it could be used to suppress
the entire report itself, for the BMF Inquiry Committee inevitably have to deal with transactions
which could be brought within the terms of being involved with ‘banking secrecy’.
It is clear that the government has now prepared a new escape route to go back on its earlier promise
to release in full the final report of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee. In fact,
the same excuse could have been used to suppress altogether the earlier Ahmad Nordin BMF
Inquiry Committee’s brief on ‘Prima Facie Cases of Corruption’, but apparently, this was not
thought of at that time.
The DAP calls on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, to honour his promise
when he announced the establishment of the BMF Inquiry Committee that the government would not suppress the Committee’s report, and to ensure that the entire full final report is made public.
However, the question is not the final report, but the various briefs which the Committee had
submitted to the authorities. The Finance Minister said in his reply that the other briefs of the
BMF Inquiry Committee had not been made public on the request of Tan Sri Ahmad Nordin
because of possible legal implications.
This is again another excuse, for during the Parliamentary debate on my motion for the establishment
of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the $2.5 billion BMF loans scandal last October, the Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Sabarrudin Cik assured Parliament, the people and the Inquiry Committee
that the government would give the BMF Committee members full backing if its investigations give
rise to any legal proceedings. Why is this now being used as an excuse to suppress the various briefs submitted by the Committee?
Isn’t it true that the briefs of the BMF Inquiry Committee which the government had refused to make public would have great political implications as various political leaders as well as political parties
had been named?
In this connection, I would call on the Finance Minister, Daim Zainuddin, to clarify whether it is
true that the BMF Inquiry Committee had been given a September deadline to complete its final report and disband, although the BMF Inquiry Committee would not be able to complete investigations by then? If this is true, what does the government propose to do with the areas on the BMF loans scandal which the Inquiry Committee had not been able to investigate?