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Dr M: Tunku Aziz should probe Riza and Jho Low
Published:  May 6, 2015 4:35 PM
Updated: May 7, 2015 1:10 AM

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad has urged Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim to train his sights on businessman Jho Low and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's stepson Riza Aziz if he is truly concerned about corruption.

"As someone who professes to be concerned about corruption, shouldn't he ask how Jho Low ( left in photo ) and Riza Aziz have hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Shouldn't he be interested in public officers who live well beyond their means. Or has he got selective awareness of what is going on around him.

"An American paper reported that now Malaysia is among the ten most corrupt countries in the world. Shouldn't he try to find out why?" wrote on his blog today.

He was commenting on Tunku Abdul Aziz's article in the New Straits Times on May 4, which alluded to the former premier's complicity in the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance Limited (BMF) scandal in the late 1980s.

'Won't infer without evidence'

In his article, Tunku Abdul Aziz ( right ) said BMF was a subsidiary of the successful Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Bhd (BBMB), which had US$15 billion (RM54 billion) in assets in 1988.

BMF then loaned US$1 billion to two Hong Kong-based companies Plessey Investment Limited and Carrian Investment Limited, which did not repay the loan

Tunku Abdul Aziz described then-chairperson of BMF Lorrain Osman as a fall guy for the scandal, and implied that someone from "high above" had instructed Lorrain to move the BMF funds.

"Tunku Abdul Aziz tries to pin the BMF scandal on me on the basis of a statement by Lorrain. He assumes that 'high above' Lorrain was me.

"There are lots of people high above Lorrain. I will not name them here because I don't like making inferences when I have no concrete evidence," Mahathir wrote.

'My sons came up on their own'

He added Tunku Abdul Aziz, who is a Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission board member, could probe his records to find out how much money he (Mahathir) had allegedly stolen.

"(Tunku Abdul Aziz) can make a full investigation of my records to find out how many billions I stole from the government as he seems to imply.

"If he fails, he should at least have the decency to apologise," Mahathir remarked.

The former premier also sai he had never used public funds for the benefit of his sons.

"My sons are not billionaires but they do borrow millions to finance their own businesses.

"Mirzan does most of his business outside Malaysia but was forced to sell his shipping business to Petronas during a financial crisis.

"Mokhzani ( right ) has a steel fabrication business started after I ceased to be the prime minister. It took him more than three years to make the money he is supposed to have.

“He did not steal the money.  What he has he has earned. Nobody’s money has disappeared because of his business.

"I did not raise loans when I was PM to help my sons. If you have evidence, show it," he said.

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Mahathir: Leave me out of BMF scandal

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