‘Like Najib’s 1MDB playbook’: Malaysia’s anti-corruption chief Azam Baki faces ridicule in stock saga
- Controversy is mounting over a claim by the head of the MACC that his sibling had ‘borrowed’ his trading account to purchase millions of ringgit of shares
- While the Securities Commission says it will seek an explanation, the slow response has critics drawing parallels to a scandal at the state investment fund
Malaysia’s Securities Commission on Thursday said it would seek an explanation from the country’s anti-corruption chief over a mounting controversy surrounding the official’s claim that his sibling had “borrowed” his trading account to purchase millions of ringgit of shares.
The episode surrounding Azam Baki has once again cast a negative light on the under-fire Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), following several recent cases of officers embezzling funds or acting inappropriately.
In the latest saga, Azam, 58, had been the subject of weeks of online speculation after an anonymous social media account alleged that he had owned a substantial amount of shares in Malaysian firms between 2015 and 2016, when he was already a senior official in the agency.
As a civil servant, Azam is prohibited from owning shares of any listed company worth more than 100,000 ringgit (US$23,700).
To compound his woes, prominent local economist Edmund Terence Gomez last week resigned from one of the MACC’s external advisory bodies, citing concerns over official inaction surrounding allegations of impropriety against Azam.
Firing back, Azam in a press conference on Wednesday strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
Instead, he said the stock holdings in question were bought by his brother “who borrowed my trading account to do so”.
“I don’t owe anyone any explanation about what actually happened back in 2015,” said Azam, who assumed leadership of the MACC last year after over three decades in the agency.
“However, as I’ve explained to the board members, my stock market account, at that time, was used by my brother Nasir to purchase shares,” he said.
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The MACC chief added that he had informed his superiors about the 2015 share purchase, and that they were satisfied with his declaration.
The Securities Commission said on Thursday that the law required all dealings in securities to be “effected only by the beneficial owner of the securities or an authorised nominee”.
The agency, entrusted with regulating and developing Malaysia’s capital markets, said it would be “in touch with the parties involved” including Azam Baki “for an explanation and to verify statements made as well as gather any relevant evidence”.
The securities regulator’s brief statement followed sharp public criticism of remarks by Azam and officials from the MACC’s advisory council on Wednesday.
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Members of the advisory council held a separate press conference from Azam, and said they were “of the opinion that Azam did not have any pecuniary interest in the said shares”.
Local lawyer Rafique Rashid Ali told This Week in Asia it was unfathomable that the advisory council – led by one-time Senate president Abu Zahar Ujang – had taken it upon itself to clear Azam of wrongdoing.
“It raises more questions and concerns regarding MACC’s integrity, more so when rumours have been swirling around for quite a bit,” Rafique said.
Before this week’s developments, commentators had been busy analysing comments by Gomez, the economist who resigned from the MACC’s Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel.
The University of Malaya professor of political economy had quit the group after it purportedly failed to take heed of his repeated requests by email for a meeting to discuss allegations surrounding Azam Baki.
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In Wednesday’s press conference, Abu Zahar, the MACC’s advisory council head, said he had not received Gomez’s emails.
He suggested the emails may not have been received because of issues with the agency’s service provider.
On social media, Malaysians ridiculed this suggestion and drew parallels to the events of 2015, when authorities were slow to investigate emerging allegations surrounding 1MDB. Najib, then prime minister, denied any wrongdoing, and key appointees including the then attorney general Apandi Ali backed him.
“Azam Baki’s case is like pages of Najib’s playbook regarding 1MDB. Goons continuously say no need to investigate, everything OK, don’t politicise, assets more than liabilities. When [there was] no choice, [they] got Apandi appointed who cleared everything,” wrote Twitter user @esKahn. “At the end, we found out Najib … had been seriously thieving through 1MDB.”
Political analyst Oh Ei Sun said the saga risked further damaging the reputation of the MACC.
The erosion of the anti-corruption agency’s credibility would be beneficial to Najib, Oh said, referring to the ex-leader’s insistence that the criminal case against him was borne out of a political vendetta.
“The very serious allegations against Azam and the rather lacklustre response by him certainly do not reassure public confidence towards him and by extension the enforcement agency he heads,” said Oh of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
Najib is facing several criminal trials over his alleged involvement in the 1MDB scandal – in which over US$7 billion of state funds were misappropriated – and has been sentenced to 12 years in jail in the first of these cases.
He is currently on bail pending an appeal to Malaysia’s apex court, and remains one of the country’s most influential political figures.
