Anwar: Dr M said ‘don’t touch’ Nor over RM30b forex losses

Nor has been identified as among those culpable in the BNM exchange scandal. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 ― Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim revealed today that it was Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had ordered him not to punish Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop despite his role in the 1992 Bank Negara Malaysa (BNM) forex scandal, which cost the central bank some RM30 billion in exchange losses.

Anwar explained that his jurisdiction as the finance minister at the time had only allowed him to force Nor’s resignation from the bank and order for his removal from any involvement in the country’s financial affairs, whether public or private.

“Dr Mahathir ordered, ‘don’t touch him (Nor)’. The prime minister at the time did not agree with taking action because he said, ‘If we make profits, you praise him (Nor), when we make losses, you want to torture him’,” he told a press conference in Parliament today.

 Anwar, who now leads the federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR), was forced today to divulge details of his role in the multibillion ringgit BNM scandal, which had taken the central bank a full decade to recoup its losses.

The issue was revived during Question Time in Parliament this morning when Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) asked the government to state the actual losses suffered by BNM in the foreign exchange market between 1990 and 2012.

The DAP secretary-general later stood to ask why Nor, who has been named as among those to blame for the losses, had not been punished for his role but was instead made the second finance minister under the Abdullah administration.

Nor is currently a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department within Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet.

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