Lim Kit Siang, who appeared before the task force probing the Bank Negara foreign exchange market (forex) scandal in the 1990s, had told investigators that their dealing with an “elephant carcass”.

Disclosing this to reporters after his 30-minute session with the panel in Putrajaya today, the DAP leader said the current “elephant in the room” was the 1MDB scandal.

"They asked (me) who were involved and who were not involved. Those who have information (about the forex scandal).

"Whatever information I have is already public knowledge in my speeches in parliament," added the veteran politician.

The real lesson of the forex scandal, Lim said, was how all major stakeholders failed to uphold the principle of good governance and accountability.

"That's a lesson that we must learn on 1MDB.

"Now, the urgent thing is what we do about the present elephant in the room, which is the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal.

"Are we going to wait for 25 years before setting up a task force on 1MDB? By then it would be the 1MDB carcass," he stressed.

Insisting that he stood by his statements on the forex scandal in the past, Lim, said the panel should have summoned other top figures, including Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who was a senior minister then.

Others who should be quizzed, according to him, were International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamad, who was then parliamentary secretary to the Finance Ministry, and Pendang MP Othman Abdul, who was the parliamentary secretary in the Prime Minister’s Department at the time.

The Bank Negara forex scandal took place when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister. Lim was the parliament opposition leader then.

This was also during the tenure of jailed former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as finance minister.

On April 20, Anwar faced the task force and named Nor Mohamed Yakcop, then a senior Bank Negara official, as the person responsible for the forex losses.

The central bank had incurred a colossal loss due to speculation on foreign currencies.

The task force is headed by former chief secretary to the government, Sidek Hassan. Its formation led to speculation that it was related to Mahathir's hard-hitting criticism of Najib over the 1MDB scandal.