The author of the 'Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in turbulent times' Barry Wain should be sued if the allegations he levelled against the former prime minister were untrue.

Klang DAP parliamentarian Charles Santiago said yesterday that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should take action against Wain as his accusations that Mahathir was responsible for the RM100 billion financial loss during his tenure as the prime minister are considered baseless.

gst 110310 charles santiago Santiago ( right ) was referring to the written answer to his question on whether the government plans to investigate Wain's claims.

However, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz replied that the graft busters had reviewed the book in general and had not found any elements of corruption and had no plans to initiate an investigation.

"MACC is not planning to conduct an investigation because there's nothing to show that an offence had taken place," said Mohd Nazri.

Wain, the former Asian Wall Street Journal managing editor, had penned a controversial and critical account of Mahathir's 22 years as the prime minister in the book.

One of the most attention-grabbing aspects was his accusation that an estimated RM100 billion was siphoned off from the country through a financial scandal, and direct financial losses which  had piled up to around RM50 billion under Mahathir's administration.

It postulates that as much as US$40 billion (RM100 billion at the exchange rate at the time) was lost to Malaysia through corruption or grandiose schemes that came to nothing.

T NONE his account was, however, denied by Mahathir who had also threatened to initiate court action against Wain ( left ), raising the defence that the country would have been in deep financial trouble if it had lost such a hefty sum of funds.

The book's release was held back for many months because of its controversial nature, but finally made it to the shelves last May.

"They don't dispute the RM100 billion... so they accept that so much was lost and if investigation had already taken place, we would like to know when will the results be made public," said Santiago.

The government wants to be transparent and fair to the people, it should, therefore, explain why the MACC and the cabinet minister believe there are no elements of corruption, he added.