QUESTION TIME | The royal commission of inquiry (RCI) if it competently, fairly and independently investigates Bank Negara Malaysia’s foreign exchange losses of an estimated RM31 billion in the early 90s, will unearth many interesting facets of the episode and put a stop to speculation over them, even if it is 25 years too late.

Ironically, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang had called for an RCI on the forex losses way back in 1994 when the scandal came to light, only to see it happen now, when the then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his bitter political foe before, became an ally under Pakatan Harapan.

No doubt that was partly why the RCI came into being - to tarnish Mahathir’s image, and Lim’s and Anwar Ibrahim’s as well, who was finance minister from 1991 to 1998, which covered the period during which the forex trading took place. It will also deflect attention from 1MDB for a while.

The RCI report will likely be damaging to Mahathir the most, followed by Anwar with some collateral damage on Lim, now allied to Mahathir. Lim, to his credit, was the fiercest critic then against the forex losses and spoke up in Parliament repeatedly, blaming both Mahathir and Anwar.

But what would have been right is to have had an RCI simultaneously on 1MDB as well, where a similar amount of US$7 billion (currently RM30.1 billion) is unaccounted for, according to press reports quoting the auditor-general’s report, which remains hidden under the Official Secrets Act.

These are, after all, the largest losses made to date by Malaysian state-owned institutions and it will be very informative and instructive to find out how these losses happened, and from where the final instruction came which resulted in these institutions losing a combined sum of more than RM60 billion.

In fact, an RCI for 1MDB is even more urgent, considering that this is an ongoing event and a quick investigation can help recover much money, about which evidence very strongly indicates has already been stolen. Establishing early where the money is increases chances of recovery substantially. But that RCI won’t happen now but might in future, at least one hopes so.

Still, the RCI forex investigation is an opportunity to put the facts right. Some key questions: How much was lost? Who was responsible? Who gave the order to engage in forex trading? Is there any written order or was it by word of mouth? The answers to these will finally exorcise the ghosts of the forex losses.

Unfortunately, one of the persons who has all the answers - then Bank Negara governor Jaffar Hussein - passed on in 1998. The other is then Bank Negara adviser (now referred to as assistant governor) Nor Mohamed Yakcop, currently deputy chairperson of Khazanah Nasional Bhd and before that a cabinet minister and special economic adviser to Dr Mahathir Mohamad after the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

I interviewed Jaffar several times during my days as a financial reporter in the 80s, both at Bank Negara and at Malayan Banking, where he was CEO. His obvious integrity and knowledge impressed me and if not for that forex loss, the only blight on a distinguished career, he would have retired in glory instead of ignominy. I never figured out how an otherwise careful and meticulous person could have been so careless.

Both of them resigned in 1994 after Bank Negara’s press conference in March to release its annual report for 1993, where the full extent of the central bank’s forex trading losses became clearly apparent for the first time. Even then, the exact figure for the losses was not immediately obvious and is still not certain, although most reliable estimates and sources put it at around RM30-32 billion...