Pengendali portal Malaysia Today, Raja Petra Kamarudin mendakwa, tiga pegawai kanan Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) kini sedang disiasat pihak berkuasa kerana disyaki membocorkan maklumat sulit kepada Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Beliau berkata, laporan telah dibuat terhadap mereka dan kemungkinan besar pegawai kanan terbabit akan menerima nasib yang sama seperti bekas Penolong Gabenor Bank Negara, Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid pada 1999.
Raja Petra memberitahu, perbuatan membocorkan maklumat sulit kepada WSJ itu adalah lebih serius daripada skandal yang melibatkan Abdul Murad.
“Pihak berkuasa dipercayai sedang menyiasat sama ada ketiga-tiga pegawai kanan berkenaan cuba mengkhianati kerajaan.
“Perbuatan yang dianggap sebagai sabotaj terhadap kerajaan itu boleh mendatangkan kesan yang buruk kepada negara,” katanya melalui entri bertajuk ‘The Bank Negara Scandal, Yet Again’ hari ini.
WSJ baru-baru ini melaporkan para penyiasat Malaysia didakwa telah mengesan hampir AS$700 juta (RM2.6 bilion) ke dalam apa yang mereka percaya adalah akaun peribadi Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Sementara itu, pelbagai pihak meminta pihak berkuasa termasuk BNM segera menjalankan siasatan berhubung pendedahan Raja Petra itu.
Pengerusi Gabungan Anti Penyelewengan Selangor (GAPS), Hamidzun Khairuddin berkata, dakwaan tersebut bukan sahaja mencemar integriti BNM sebagai pihak berkuasa yang mengawal operasi kesemua bank di negara ini malah turut menjatuhkan imej institusi kewangan negara yang selama ini bersih.
“Jika dakwaan itu benar, ini secara jelas telah melanggar Akta Bank dan Institusi-Institusi Kewangan (BAFIA) yang menjamin kerahsiaan setiap maklumat sulit perbankan,” katanya kepada Mingguan Malaysia di sini hari ini.
Sementara itu, Presiden Gerakan Reformasi Rakyat Malaysia (Reformis), Ramlan Abu Bakar meminta BNM menggantung tugas ketiga-tiga pegawai kanan berkenaan bagi memastikan siasatan dalaman dapat dijalankan dengan telus.
“Saya harap mereka digantung tugas sehingga siasatan selesai dan jika didapati bersalah hukuman setimpal perlu dikenakan kerana perbuatan itu sangat berbahaya,” katanya.
Pengerusi Gabungan NGO 1Malaysia (NGO1M), Mohammad Nazlee Aziz Yeop pula menyifatkan perbuatan tersebut sebagai satu pengkhianatan terhadap kepercayaan yang diberikan kerajaan kepada individu-individu berkenaan.
“Mereka adalah pemimpin kanan BNM tetapi sanggup membocorkan maklumat rahsia kepada media antarabangsa menyebabkan isu ini diputar-belit pihak tertentu,” katanya.
Dalam pada itu, Presiden Orang Muda Berpadu Anti Korupsi (OMBAK), Wan Khairul Ihsan Wan Muhammad berharap Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) turut tampil melakukan siasatan.
The Bank Negara scandal, yet again
There is no confirmation yet how the police are going to proceed with this case but indications are they are already quite fed up with the whole matter and this time may throw the book at Datuk Nurshamsiah Mohd Yunus, Shamsuddin Mahayidin and Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar.
Resignation of Assistant Governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid
The Bank wishes to announce the resignation of Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid, Assistant Governor, from the Bank effective 1 February 1999. As Assistant Governor, Datuk Abdul Murad was responsible for banking regulation and banking supervision.
That was the Bank Negara announcement of Wednesday, 3rd February 1999.
The Murad story is a long story and if you want to know what that story is you can read about it HERE. The long and short of it is: a very senior man in Bank Negara was forced to resign (as were some others as well around that same time) because he was involved in laundering RM3 billion of Anwar Ibrahim’s money.
Murad was eventually arrested and in his statement he revealed how the RM3 billion was distributed all over the world and placed in various bank accounts.
Just six years before that it was revealed that Bank Negara lost RM30 billion in a Forex scandal that implicated both Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar. Lim Kit Siang, the opposition leader at that time, was so outraged, especially about Anwar lying to Parliament, that he demanded his resignation.
So Bank Negara has been in the spotlight more than once in the 1990s during the time when Dr Mahathir and Anwar were in power. And both times it was for criminal acts. And now it looks like the bank is going to be in the centre of a scandal cum criminal act yet again.
Datuk Nurshamsiah Mohd Yunus, Bank Negara’s Deputy Governor, plus Shamsuddin Mahayidin and Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar, have been identified as the three culprits from the bank who leaked confidential information to the Wall Street Journal.
A report has already been made against them and there is a strong possibility they are going to suffer the same fate that Murad did back in 1999.
In the first Bank Negara scandal in 1993 it involved the crime of trying to cover up the RM30 billion Forex losses and the crime of lying to Parliament. In 1999 it was the crime of money laundering and the crime of siphoning out RM3 billion. This time it is more serious.
The authorities are working on the angle that these three Bank Negara officers are trying to subvert the government and subversion can be interpreted as an act of treason. This can have very serious repercussions on the country and any act of sabotage to bring down the country is punishable under the charge of waging war against the Agong and can attract the death sentence.
Maybe they thought they were just sabotaging the Prime Minister but when the act of sabotaging the Prime Minister involves sabotaging the country then it would tantamount to treason. And treason means death.
There is no confirmation yet how the police are going to proceed with this case but indications are they are already quite fed up with the whole matter and this time may throw the book at Datuk Nurshamsiah Mohd Yunus, Shamsuddin Mahayidin and Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar.
We shall wait to see what the police say over these next few days.
Meanwhile, the Thai police have confirmed that Xavier Andre Justo is under maximum security. Though the Thai police deny that there was an attempt to poison Justo, they do confirm that he is under maximum security to prevent anyone from reaching him and persuading him to change his testimony.
How this ‘persuasion’ will be done was not mentioned but probably, as Don Vito said in ‘The Godfather’, they can “make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
I just love that movie, don’t you? I have probably seen it more than six times, the most recent being last month.
Raja Petra Kamarudin
