COMMENT At last, the two political coalitions in the country have been forced through their grandstanding to urge royal commissions of inquiry (RCI) into three of the worst financial scandals in recent Malaysian history.

Pakatan Harapan has of course been urging an RCI into the most recent 1MDB scandal that has made international headlines.

To get at the former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Umno minister Salleh Said Keruak has urged an RCI to look into the Bumiputera Malaysia Finance Limited (BMF) and Bank Negara foreign exchange (forex) scandals as these equally big financial scandals have never been investigated by an RCI and charges imposed.

Malaysian civil society says aye to both these calls since the government can never regain the trust of the people until these three multi-billion financial losses have been accounted for and the negligent and corrupt leaders have been brought to account.

The first RCI should investigate the current financial scandal around 1MDB. The state investment fund has come under investigation for alleged impropriety after reports emerged that investigators traced some US$700 million wired into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s bank accounts. 1MDB was RM42 billion in debt at the time of the scandal.

Investigations by the US Department of Justice has uncovered the fact that insiders allegedly siphoned off billions of dollars and treated themselves to penthouse apartments in New York, a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills and paintings by Monet and Van Gogh.