Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has admitted failure of the government to crack the long-standing RM10 billion Perwaja Steel scandal.

He admitted that there was mismanagement and fraud involved in the Perwaja fiasco, but disclaimed responsibility for failing to nail the culprits by putting the blame squarely on the Swiss authorities reluctance to unveil a Swiss account holder of RM76 million, which was fraudulently siphoned off from Perwaja Steel.

Mahathirs explanation is totally unacceptable.

Firstly, it runs afoul of the statement by the former director of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) Ahmad Zaki Husin a year ago, when Zaki disclosed that he was on the verge of a breakthrough in the Perwaja investigation through impending unlocking of the Swiss account with the anticipated cooperation of the Swiss government.

However, Zakis disclosure was followed soon by an abrupt announcement of the non-renewal of Zakis tenure with the ACA. Since then, nothing was heard of this case from Zakis successor, who is a former police officer, and whose role as ACA director has been so low profile that he is hardly heard nor seen. (The reason for Zakis sudden cessation of service at this critical juncture of the Perwaja investigation will be apparent from the paragraphs appearing below).

Secondly, the RM76 million in the Swiss account is pittance, compared to the RM10 billion losses that Malaysians are burdened with as all liabilities of the failed Perwaja are borne by the government.

What happens to the numerous multi-million ringgit dubious deals that contributed to the mountain of debts that Perwaja has found itself saddled with? Surely, it cant be true that all these improprieties were not transacted by Perwaja management and did not take place within this country! Then, how is it possible that ACA is not able to come up with a single prosecution despite its several thousand strong staff, and after seven years of investigations?

Is ACA hopelessly incompetent, or is the government covering up the scandal? Common sense tells us that the latter is the case, and this is borne out by the following facts.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (now jailed), in his report to the police on 22nd July 1999 (Report No 19625/99), accused Mahathir point blank as the man who directly controlled then Perwaja managing director Eric Chia whose stewardship of Perwaja was the cause of this investigation. Anwar stated in his police report:

Eric Chia has in fact repeatedly claimed that he was under the orders of and his actions had the support of the PM. And this is further substantiated with letters written by the PM himself. With the so-called mandate, the board was sidelined, tender procedures were blatantly ignored and there were questionable, unsatisfactory payments made to certain parties.

Through this police report, Anwar had practically accused Mahathir as the head of the Mahathir-Eric Chia axis which caused the Perwaja disaster through improprieties. These surely were accusations of the gravest nature directed at the head of a government, by the former deputy head of the same government, made through the foremost law-enforcing agency (the police), and involved the biggest financial scandal — the losses are equal to one tenth of the national budget — in the countrys history.

Lim Kit Siang, then opposition leader, had rightly and promptly attempted to move a motion in parliament to debate this issue and called on PM to give his account there. As could be expected, Lims motion was barred from parliament by the dutiful Speaker, who rejected the motion on the ridiculous ground that it was not urgent.

Until today, Mahathir has not answered these accusations. Neither is the police (or ACA) known to have taken any action on Anwars police report.

If Mahathir has been innocent, wouldnt he have welcomed the opportunity of a parliamentary session to declare his innocence and wouldnt the police or ACA have promptly acted to expose the accuser (Anwar) as a terrible liar?

The conspiracy of silence among the principal himself (Mahathir), parliament, police, ACA and the ever-compliant press and broadcasting stations in the face of such serious tainting of the PMs reputation can only mean one thing — the principal is guilty.

There is only one honourable way out for PM, and that is to resign. For, even in the unlikely event that he is not personally entangled in this scandal, he is still guilty of unpardonable negligence, for as the cabinet minister directly in charge of the ACA, he must take full responsibility for ACAs utter and inexcusable failure to come up with any meaningful result on such a colossal scam, after investigating it for such a long period.