Bank Negara has pledged to extend its full cooperation to the special task force to investigate the forex losses, which it pointed out in a media statement, "happened more than 25 years ago".

The setting up of the task force was announced by the Prime Minister's Office yesterday after the cabinet gave its approval, but the opposition claims it is politically motivated in view of the ongoing feud between Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In its statement issued this afternoon, Bank Negara also cautioned against being distracted from managing the economic and financial systems under the current challenging environment.

"The Bank has continuously upheld the highest standard of disclosure and transparency in its activities.

"The Bank has also significantly strengthened its balance sheet, governance and accountability, especially with respect to reserves management.

"Under the current challenging and uncertain environment, it is important that we remain focused and not be distracted from our efforts to ensure that the economy and financial system remain stable and resilient to support the country's economic activities," it stated.

In a hard-hitting statement earlier, Lim Kit Siang, who has now joined hands with Mahathir, accused the cabinet ministers who gave their approval for the task force of being guilty of "colossal negligence and irresponsibility of the first degree".

The DAP veteran said while these ministers agreed to the setting up of a task force to probe the forex losses more than two decades ago, they remained silent on the 1MDB scandal.

"But all the ministers of Najib's cabinet yesterday preferred to play the role of the traditional three monkeys - with eyes that see not, with ears that hear not, with mouths that speak not what the whole world and Malaysians can see, hear and speak - to the extent that Malaysia is regarded worldwide as a new and instant 'global kleptocracy' under the sixth prime minister, Najib," he charged.

Lim was a former staunch critic of the financial scandals during Mahathir's tenure as prime minister, and his detractors have accused him of changing his tune since forming an alliance with Mahathir.

However, the veteran politician has denied this.