Is Kit Siang senile too, Tony Pua?

Tony Pua and his senile (?) boss

Of late, the labelling of senility cropped up in the midst of the issues surrounding SUARAM and George Soros and the old foreign exchange loss. Old folks facing senility exhibit lost of cognitive ability like memory.

Tony Pua called Tun Dr Mahathir irrelevant and senile. Kurang ajar betul!

But the Pakatan media, Malaysiakini still insist on asking the allegedly senile former Prime Minister on past issues relating to foreign exchange trading losses to help Anwar deflect the responsibility from him.

Quietly in the midst is Lim Kit Siang, the veteran opposition MP from DAP that actively took up the foreign exchange loss against Anwar in the past.

Why the silence from Kit Siang, Tony Pua? Is he senile too?

Diversion

Attempted diversion for SUARAM and PR Budget failed

In the midst of the public expose on the link between Suaram and rouge hedge fund manager, George Soros and the CIA-backed covert organisation, National Endowment on Democrasy (NED), Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim tried deflect public attention.

At the same time, his attempt to deflect Najib’s annual Budget presentation with Pakatan Rakyat’s own shadow budget failed drastically. It needed a diversion too.

Making things worse was the squabble between Azmin and Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim that end up with PKR ADUN, Suhaimi releasing an embarassing PKR-laden shadow cabinet.

Took responsibility for RM16 bil forex loss

He made allegation that Tun Dr Mahathir instructed him, when he was Finance Minister, as not to touch Tan Sri Nor Mohamad Yakcop.

And he further questioned why after resigning  from BNM, was he later appointed as Special Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister? [Read Malaysia Chronicle dated September 25th here]

Nor Mohamed was then in charge of Treasury at Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and was responsible for the humongous forex trading losses.

But where did Anwar got the loss number as RM30 billion? Tengku Razaleigh used to claim that the estimated loss was merely RM16 billion and he derived it from a capital deficit of BNM’s annual report. Wonder how did PAS’s "economist" Dr Rosli derived that number RM30 billion?

Perhaps these people received as from a voice from God as recently experienced by Tan Sri Kadir Sheikh Fadzir in his state of sufi drunkedness (?).

Anwar's diversion attempt did not caught on.  In fact, Anwar received heavy bombardment for his poorly conceived budget.

Added salt to injury

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin added salt to injury to discredit his tenure as Finance Minister. He claimed Anwar is no economic expert and does not know the economic situation of the country.

He reminded that in 1994, Lim Kit Siang and Ahmad Shabery Chik, then was a Semangat 46 Member of Parliament and Political Secretary to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah blamed Anwar for the RM16 billion forex trading loss. [Read the AIDC report here on MIM]

At the same time around early October, Dr Mahathir took opportunity of the Soros-link with made a remark that voting for opposition means voting for George Soros. This brought rude response from Tony Pua.

Tony Pua called Dr Mahathir senile and irrelevant. Unlike Dr Mahathir, he said the opposition never met George Soros. He alleged that George Soros approached Perdana Leadership Foundation to do programmes together. [Read The Malaysian Insiders here]

 Labelled senile but still being asked for reply

Two days ago, Malaysiakini tried hard to revive the issue and asked Dr Mahathir at a function at the Institiut Jantung Negara (IJN) as to why he promoted our own rogue trader, Nor Mohamad to Special Economic Adviser.

Dr Mahathir didn’t evade as Malaysiakini reported but merely returning their harsh words with sarcasm. He has all the time in the world to answer later. [Read the Malaysiakini report here in copy-and-paste blogger, Din Merican's blog]

In a classic Mahathir down-the-line backhand passing shot, he replied, “The opposition will bring up any issue.You see now they are going after me. Also, I am nyanyuk (senile), so why people (do) want to ask me? You look at me, I’m nyanyuk so I can’t answer your question.”

No worry Tun, he does not need to answer. Those issues can be answered by the likes of us but in another posting. This blogger understand the foreign exchange market.

But all this talk of foreign exchange will not do good to Anwar. Conveniently, Lim Kit Siang remain quiet on this issue. Is he senile or something?

Kit Siang’s silence  

In 1994, Lim Kit Siang published a book, “The Bank Negara RM30 Billion Forex Losses Scandal”. The position he had taken then on Pakatan chief  Anwar should be interresting to be reminded again.

Kit Siang wrote:

“In the special DAP motion on the Bank Negara forex losses in  Parliament last April, the Finance Minister,  Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim strenuously denied that Bank  Negara had "speculated"  or "gambled"  in foreign exchange. 

"Anwar said that as Finance Minister, he was "fully satisfied with the reasons" given by Tan Sri Jaffar Hussein for the Bank Negara's forex losses.”

The Governor Tan Sri Jaffar and Tan Sri Nor Yakcop had resigned to take responsibility. But Kit Siang went on to attack Anwar:

“However, the person who must also bear responsibility for the colossal Bank Negara forex losses, apart from Tan Sri Jaffar Hussein, must be the Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, himself. 

“As Anwar had assured Parliament last April that he was 'satisfied' with Tan Sri Jaffar's explanation for the 1992  Bank Negara forex losses, what had Tan Sri Jaffar done differently in 1993 with regard to the 1993 Bank Negara forex losses to require his resignation?”

What else did the DAP strongman said of Anwar over the forex matter? Read on.

“There are two other reasons why Anwar Ibrahim must bear personal responsibility for Bank Negara's  forex losses. 

“Anwar Ibrahim said last week that he had directed Bank Negara to stop foward foreign exchange trading when he discovered its forex losses 18 months ago. If Bank Negara had followed his instructions to stop forward forex trading in 1992, then how could Bank Negara suffer RM5.7 billion losses in 1993, on top of the RM 10.1 billion to RM13.1 billion losses in 1992?” 

“Furthermore, Anwar Ibrahim had misled Parliament last July when I questioned him whether Bank Negara had suffered more forex losses.  Anwar said that this was not true as he had been monitoring the Bank Negara's forex dealings weekly. 

On July 19,1993, I asked Anwar Ibrahim a supplementary question during question time as to whether at that  date, Bank Negara's provision of RM2.7 billion contingent liability for forward forex trading in the 1992 Bank Negara accounts had not only been confirmed, but even more forex losses had been incurred."

This is Anwar's reply, from the  Hansard of  19th July 1993 (p.28):

"Dato ' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim: Tuan Yang di-Pertua, dukacita saya memaklumkan ini satu berita yang kurang baik bagi Yang Berhormat dari Tanjong. Kerugian yang dimasudkan  itu tidak berlaku dan tidak bertambah. Yang Berhormat mahu percaya atau tidak tetapi saya ada maklumat yang sebenar tentang keadaan tersebut. 

"Saya juga  meneliti tiap-tiap minggu perkembangan  kerana masalah yang dihadapi sebelum ini. ... Saya ingin member jaminan kepada Yang Berhormat dari Tanjong Bahawa perkara ini kita teliti lebih dekat dan kita lebih waspada kerana pengalaman yang lalu. "

In this one short answer, Anwar Ibrahim had misled Parliament and the nation on three matters:

• that by July 1993, the provision in the 1992 Bank Negara accounts for RM2.7 billion contingent liability for forward forex trading had not been confirmed;

• that BankNegara had not suffered more forex losses; and

• that his weekly monitoring of Bank Negara's  forex dealings would prevent further colossal losses arising  from Bank Negara's forward forex trading.

Today what Anwar, Tony Pua and Pakatan Rakyat’s media want people to believe that the bad guy is actually the hero and put the blame on others.

However when he was Finance Minister, BNM comes under his auspices.

Even if he is ignorant in the area of finance and economics to initiate any new polices or initiatives, he should at least play the role of monitoring the various departments, institutions and agencies under him.

Quiet or senile?

If Kit Siang now says he was wrong in his book, that is fine. But then he must admit that every allegation he and his comrades make can be wrong. It will imply that allegations he made are to serve political purpose. It matters not to the accuser that they may be wrong, very wrong.

Will Kit Siang admit he is wrong or he wish to lay quiet like a senile old man? Never mind, he doesn’t have to answer that. Neither do Tony Pua has to answer.

According to Raja Petra, it looks as if, DAP is subtly doing a number on Anwar.

And deep within PAS, DAP and even PKR, almost everybody believed Anwar is guilty of sexual misconduct and many other indiscretions. They could be lining up against him. [Read RPK in Malaysia Today here.]

Given the choice between old senile Dr Mahathir against conscious and alert Anwar Ibrahim or Lim Kit Siang or both of them combined, Dr Mahathir is more useful and have more to contribute to this country. He is more relevant than Tony Pua perceive.

Lim Kit Siang can't truthfully deny that Muhyiddin is right about Anwar. He can talk but knows nuts about economics and finance.