Megat Panjialam: Skandal perdagangan mata wang asing dari 1992 hingga 1993.

TaipingMali : Tan Sri Jaafar Hussein adalah bekas Gabenor Bank Negara Malaysia ke 4, dari Jun 1985 hingga Mei 1994. Namun Pada 1 April 1994 beliau meletak jawatan selepas berkhidmat selama 9 tahun.

Pada 2 Jun 2012, di Dewan Sri Pinang, Padang Kota Lama, Pulau Pinang telah diadakan forum membincangkan skandal perdagangan mata wang asing dari 1992 hingga 1993.

Forum ini anjuran Penang Institute. Antara panelnya ialah Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang Lim Guan Eng , Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dan Dr Rosli Yaakop bekas Timbalan Gabenor Bank Negara.

Skandal ini dikatakan berlaku semasa Perdana Menteri Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dan Menteri Kewangan Tun Daim Zainuddin. Bank Negara Malaysia dikesan mula terlibat dengan kegiatan spekulasi di pasaran pertukaran mata wang semasa Gabenor TS Jaafar Hussein. TS Aziz Taha enggan , lalu meletak jawatan.

Pada 1989, TS Jaafar Hussein telah menekankan tentang Bank Negara patut mengoptimumkan keuntungan termasuk melalui berurus niaga di pasaran saham sebagaimana George Soros.

Tahun 1992, BNM telah berjudi di dalam Paun British (GBP) dan menyebabkan Bank of England runtuh pada 1992.

Keuntungan BNM tidak kekal dan akhirnya rugi besar, lalu Dr Mahathir memperkenal kan dasar Penswastaan dengan menswastakan 400 jabatan kerajaan dan syarikat.

Gabenor Bank Pusat Amerika , Greenspan telah menggesa agar BNM berhenti spekulatif mata wang asing. Turut agresif ialah Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop. Tun Daim Zainuddin merupakan seorang spekulator besar dalam pasaran saham. Beliau menjana kekayaan melalui spekulasi di pasaran saham.

YB Lim Kit Siang menganggarkan kerugian BNM pada 1993 itu ialah RM30 bilion. DS Anwar Ibrahim menjadi Menteri Kewangan pada 1993 tetapi tetapi kerugian BNM sudah menggunung. Pada Julai 1994 Jaafar Hussein dan Nor Mohamed Yakcop dipaksa letak jawatan. Selepas bersara.

Selepas bersara Tan Sri Jaafar Hussein tidak pun didakwa dan disiasat. Malahan beliau dilantik sebagai Timbalan Pengerusi PNB. Jaafar Hussein meninggal dunia pada 11 Ogos 1998 kerana barah pada usia 67 tahun.

GEORGE TOWN: Former DAP life member Shamsher Singh Thind is not sad to leave the party, which he has criticised for working with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In his latest post on Facebook, Shamsher also called on DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng to step down should the number of its Parliamentary seats drop by even one in the next general election.

This would mean, said the law lecturer, that the whole plan of working with Dr Mahathir had backfired.

Shamsher, who was from the Chai Leng Park DAP branch, said the party should have consulted its grassroots to see if they agreed to co-operate with Dr Mahathir.

“I am not sad to leave. I am looking forward to set up an NGO with people who share the same philosophy as me.

“The NGO’s objective is to educate the people not to cast their votes based on the party but on the candidate’s capabilities,” he said here yesterday.

In his post, Shamsher defended his decision to resign and, among others, questioned the common framework for the Opposition coalition, PAS and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and their choice for prime minister.

“They gave us BA (Barisan Alternatif). Failed! Then they gave PR (Pakatan Rakyat). Failed! Next they gave us Pakatan Harapan. Failed in Sarawak!

“And now they are giving us PH (Pakatan Harapan) + PAS + Bersatu (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia). You don’t become (American inventor) Thomas Alva Edison by just repeating your mistakes. When are you going to learn and improve?” he wrote on Monday.

Edison, who invented the light bulb, famously experimented with various materials thousands of times before hitting on the successful combination.

According to the DAP website, the party has 37 seats in Parliament.

In another post, Shamser said DAP deputy secretary-general Dr P. Ramasamy, who was his mentor, gave him full freedom when speaking at the party’s conventions.

“However, that does not mean that he approved my speeches or agreed with everything I said. For him, I am an adult and I know the consequences of my action,” he wrote.

Dr Ramasamy reportedly told an online news portal that those who felt that DAP had compromised its principles by working with Dr Mahathir could leave.

It also quoted Dr Ramasamy as saying that members were free to object and one member’s discontent was not reflective of the party’s mood.

Shamsher had also caused a stir during the party’s Penang convention last month when he questioned the DAP leadership for working with Dr Mahathir and ex-deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.