COMMENT The new governor of Bank Negara, Muhammad Ibrahim, played it cool, in his smooth presentation of his second quarter Bank Negara Report 2016. He was understandably upbeat in trying to encourage confidence in Malaysia’s economic performance and outlook.

But could he also have stoutly alerted the government to be more wary of the external headwinds as well as the internal threats to our economic growth and stability? He hopefully will soon set a new tone and leadership as the new governor of Bank Negara.

Our socio-economic and political image abroad, arising from the US Department of Justice’s report on the allegations against 1MDB, has been seriously affected indeed. Yet Bank Negara has nevertheless treated this serious issue rather sensitively and over-cautiously. However, our people want to know the real truth and so they expect stronger investigations, especially from Bank Negara, into these widespread concerns over possible financial misdeeds.