He said the former deputy prime minister had been giving different answers regarding Bank Negara’s forex losses in the 1990s when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister.
Anwar, the PKR de facto leader, has met the special task force investigating the foreign exchange losses to give a statement as he was then the finance minister.
Among other things, Anwar claimed in a press statement that former Bank Negara Malaysia assistant governor Nor Mohamed Yakcop did not provide a complete report on the billions of ringgit in forex losses suffered by the central bank in the 1990s.
Salleh said today in a blog post: “Anwar Ibrahim’s press statement yesterday appears to have been tailored for the current political situation he has found himself in. When he is with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar says one thing. When he is opposed to Mahathir, he says something else. And now that he is, again, with Mahathir, Anwar adds a new twist to the story.”
In 1993, Salleh said, Anwar had denied that Bank Negara had lost money playing the forex market. This, he added, was in response to a question that DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang had raised in Parliament.
In 1994, according to Salleh, Anwar told Parliament that it was a small loss, and only a ‘paper loss’. Anwar, he said, had also blamed the then Bank Negara governor for it and had said that the governor had been asked to resign.
“In 2012, in a forum in Penang, he changed his story. The forum was also told the loss was US$10 billion (RM43 billion) and they blamed three people for it, Tun Daim Zainuddin and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad included.
“Now Anwar says something else and blames just Nor Mohamed Yakcop. And this is why there is a need to further probe this matter. If the truth had been revealed 24 years ago we would not still be investigating the matter today,” added Salleh..
The task force was formed in February after former Bank Negara assistant governor Abdul Murad Khalid claimed in an interview that the central bank racked up US$10 billion in foreign exchange losses during the early 1990s when Dr Mahathir was prime minister.