KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is in a tussle with ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad to control the opposition alliance, has said he welcomed a call by former premier Najib Razak to probe some RM30 billion (S$9.8 billion at today’s rate) losses in the 1990s by the central bank in foreign exchange (forex) trading.

Datuk Seri Anwar, who was the finance minister during that time, said in a Facebook posting on Sunday evening (June 14) that he had no problem if the authorities decided to investigate the matter.

“They can investigate it, but what’s important is that I didn’t steal a sen, I didn’t take RM1 billion, I didn’t take timber land, I didn’t take stocks. That’s important.

“So if you want to investigate forex or 1MDB, please go ahead,” he said.

Mr Anwar raised eyebrows further by thanking Najib, who is a government MP, for his comments made on Saturday, saying that this was the right way of discourse, without any name-calling or insults.

Mr Anwar’s comments are likely to raise tensions within the opposition alliance amid the Anwar-Mahathir tussle in Pakatan Harapan (PH) and among its allies, in trying to wrest back federal power from the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) alliance led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s loose alliance won power at the end of February after some 40 MPs defected from PH.

These MPs from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and a breakway faction of Mr Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat joined Najib’s Umno, Parti Islam SeMalaysia, Gabungan Parti Sarawak coalition and several small parties to form PN.

Today, PH which is led by Mr Anwar, has 91 MPs under its wing – far short of the minimum 112 lawmakers needed to wrest back the government in the 222-seat Parliament.

Mr Anwar, 72, is pushing to become the next prime minister should PH comes to power again.

But if Tun Mahathir is allowed to become premier again under a deal being discussed by opposition chiefs, then PH’s 91 MPs would be boosted by at least 17 more opposition MPs to bring the total to around 108, only a few short of the 112 needed.

The so-called ‘Pakatan Plus’ alliance expects several defections to meet the minimum number needed to topple PN.

Najib had on Facebook called the PN attorney-general to reopen the files on PH’s 21 months in power, including the forex loss and what he said were five cases against PH politicians that were dropped by the previous government.

He was pushing back against opposition leaders who had raised questions about court cases being dropped against his stepson Riza Aziz and former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman.

Mr Anwar’s support for forex scandal that occurred more than 25 years ago was a surprising turn of events in his tussle with Dr Mahathir, as Pakatan Plus was expected to officially name its prime ministerial candidate this week.

In November 2017, a royal commission of inquiry backed by then-premier Najib found that Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank, had lost RM31.5 billion between 1991 and 1994.

The commission recommended that Dr Mahathir and Mr Anwar, who was then in jail, be investigated for criminal breach of trust offences.

But there were questions raised over why Najib wanted to probe financial losses that occurred more than two decades ago, but not allegations of huge losses in the 1MDB state fund during his watch.

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