Tuan Ibrahim: Zeti would know who is best to succeed her
Bank Negara Malaysia and its outgoing governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz would know best on who should take over as the head of the central bank, says PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
As such, he said their choice of successor should be respected by Putrajaya.
"Surely, Bank Negara itself and Zeti would know who would be the best replacement in terms of qualification, intelligence, capability and particularly, the ability to remain free of politics and to fend off political interference in Bank Negara," said Tuan Ibrahim in a statement today.
He noted that Zeti had been a successful Bank Negara governor, and that her leadership had received much recognition.
Tuan Ibrahim's statement came amid a report by the Wall Street Journal, quoting sources - including an unnamed cabinet minister - that the Finance's Ministry’s treasury secretary-general, Irwan Serigar Abdullah, is tipped to replace Zeti .
It is noted that Irwan sits both on 1MDB's board of advisers and Bank Negara's board of directors.
Tuan Ibrahim pointed out that in the interests of the central bank, Putrajaya should come clean on who will be replacing Zeti, whose tenure expires next month.
He added that PAS did not want to see a repeat of the situation that unfolded after former attorney-general (AG) Abdul Gani Patail was replaced with Mohamed Apandi Ali.
"PAS does not want to see a repeat of the incident where the (new) AG announced there will be no prosecution against the PM - even though the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) gave a picture that there is sufficient evidence.
"If this happens, it means Bank Negara's management is seeing political interference in the appointment of its new governor - this will affect the rakyat's and also international confidence in Malaysia," he said.
Tuan Ibrahim stressed that any individual who is involved in politics - or has served with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's cabinet - cannot be appointed as Bank Negara governor, as it would affect the central bank's reputation and integrity.
He said the rakyat would be watching Najib's promise that there would be no political interference in Bank Negara.
Najib has had to fend off the possibility of being ousted over the deposits of RM42 million from state-owned SRC International and RM2.6 billion from an offshore account into his personal bank accounts.
The MACC and Bank Negara have investigated the matter, but Apandi later decided that there would be no case , after receiving the investigation papers from both bodies.
This is despite Bank Negara urging Apandi to reconsider, while the MACC's operations review panel has also been asked by the commission to
engage the AG
over his refusal to prosecute.
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