His attendance coincided with the scheduled appearance of jailed former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was called to testify before the RCI’s five-men tribunal chaired by Mohd Sidek Hassan.
Mahathir, who is now the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, arrived at the Palace of Justice here, a little after 2pm.
Anwar on the other hand, was inside the proceeding room. He was brought to the court from Sungai Buloh prison at 8.40am today, as he was initially scheduled to provide his statement this morning.
However, his session was postponed to later this afternoon. His wife, PH president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was also present in a show of support.
Unlike 19 other witnesses before him, Anwar would be giving testimony without a pre-recorded witness statement, according to his lawyer R Sivarasa.
Anwar is currently serving a five-year jail sentence for sodomy. Last week, he had voiced concerns that he would not be called to testify at the RCI, let alone be able to attend the proceedings which started on Aug 21.
“I am without question a person who is ‘concerned’ with the proceedings of the Inquiry as provided for under Section 18 of the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950.
“I need to be there based on the fact that my name has been mentioned a number of times by certain witnesses,” Anwar had said in a statement dated Aug 24.
He had also expressed his readiness to cooperate with the RCI, given the fact that he was finance minister at the time of the forex losses, and had accepted the resignation of the then Bank Negara adviser Nor Mohamed Yakcop, as well as the then central bank governor Jaafar Hussein.
Mahathir first came to the RCI hearing on Aug 24. He had told reporters then that he “just came to see” the proceedings which he said must adhere to rules and regulations to ensure it does not affect the image of the Agong.
“I feel the commission will always be mindful of that and the expectation is that they will not smear the image of the royalty.”
The RCI is tasked with getting to the bottom of the forex losses of US$10 billion (about RM25 billion based on the exchange rate at the time) incurred by the central bank between 1991 and 1993.
The alleged scandal took place during the Mahathir administration and when Daim Zainuddin (1986-1991) and Anwar (1991-1998) were finance ministers.