Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 1^st March 2012: 

Will Mahathir propose Chua Soi Lek as UMNO President?

It has been suggested that the response to Tun Dr. Mahathir's “tongue-in-cheek” proposal that I be made PAS President is to ask whether Mahathir would propose Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek as UMNO President!

However, I think it is more productive to focus on Mahathir's other “tongue-in-cheek” statement that all the Tuns and “their sons and grandsons too” should all be investigated in response to my call for a full audit and accounting into the RM100 billion losses from the financial scandals during Mahathir's 22-year premiership.

Another bad news about Malaysian Airlines recording a whopping net loss of RM2.52 billion for 2011 despite round-after-round of billion-ringgit bailouts in the past two decades is salutary reminder that the root cause why the once national premier airline is reduced to such a parlous crisis stage today must be traced to Mahathir's 1994 decision to use Bank Negara's MAS shares to bail out Bank Negara from its RM30 billion foreign exchange losses.

Malaysians today are still paying for those financial scandals, none of which have ever been fully accounted for, as for instance in the recent RM580 million write-off by the Malaysian government with the “out-of-court” settlement between Danaharta and other GLCs with Tajudin Ramli on Feb. 14 with regard to all suits pending between them.

When Mahathir said he is prepared to be investigated for the RM100 billion losses from financial scandals during his premiership provided “all the Tuns and their sons and grandsons too” are also investigated, is he just doing a Shahrizat?

Isn't he just rephrasing what the Women, Family and Community Development Minister had said: “Tell me, which UMNO leader does not have problem?” when confronted about the RM250 million National Feedlot Centre “cow condo” scandal?

Is Mahathir so confident that he will enjoy both immunity and impunity for the RM100 billion losses suffered by the country as a result of the financial scandals during his 22-year premiership as the other “Tuns and their sons and grandsons” would never agree to any full investigation, even to clear their names?

Let the Tuns from the Mahathir era, whether Tun Abdullah, Tun Musa Hitam, Tun Daim Zainuddin, Tun Ling Liong Sik or Tun Lim Keng Yaik speak up whether they are prepared to support a full audit and investigation into the RM100 billion losses suffered by the country as a result of the financial scandals in the 22-year Mahathir premiership.

It would appear that Mahathir was also referring to past Tuns and Prime Ministers when he said: “But all Tuns must be audited. The sons and grandsons of Tuns as well.”

Is Mahathir also supremely confident that the “sons and grandsons” of previous Prime Ministers, i.e. Tun Razak and Tun Hussein, would not agree to a full audit and investigation into the RM100 billion financial “blackhole” in the Mahathir era?

Let the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, the leading scions of the second and third Prime Minister respectively, speak up.

Let us also hear from the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri MuhyidinYasin, every Cabinet Minister and all the Barisan Nasional component parties their respective position whether they would support a full audit and investigation into the RM100 billion “blackhole” caused by the losses of the financial scandals during the 22-year Mahathir premiership.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor