Why Azam must be fired.
Has MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) suddenly become super-efficient and effective in fighting corruption lately? Based on the spike in arrests of senior government officials, ranging from director-general to army chief, it seems the MACC Chief, Azam Baki, should get a trophy for being the best graft buster on planet Earth. At least that was the narrative Azam wanted to create.
In truth, it’s an “old tactic” used by every government agency chief in the country just before their contract expires. Yes, the sudden surge in anti-corruption activities is nothing but a gimmick to justify a contract extension for Azam, who, despite having passed the mandatory retirement age for public officials, had his one-year contract extended “three times” by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar, who rose to power on a pledge to clean up the government’s infamous reputation with corruption scandals, has shamelessly praised Azam for his bravery in pursuing powerful figures allegedly involved in corruption. However, it’s not hard to understand why the prime minister stubbornly and arrogantly wanted Azam to continue leading the anti-corruption agency – PM Anwar isn’t clean himself.
His political secretary, Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, was charged with four counts of corruption in December 2025. Shamsul is accused of receiving RM176,829.03 in cash and gifts (including furniture and electrical appliances) between Nov 24, 2023, and March 5, 2024, from businessman Albert Tei Jiann Cheing in a case linked to a Sabah mineral exploration licensing scandal.
Initially, Anwar defended his decision not to sack his political secretary despite the corruption scandal. But he soon changed his story and accepted Shamsul’s resignation – and bragged about anti-corruption under his government – after realising that his aide was indefensible. The Premier’s main “bag carrier” was not Shamsul, but his former political secretary-turned-crony Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.
Since his boss became prime minister in November 2022, Farhash has been appointed as chairman of various companies, including retail chain outlet 7-Eleven, which forms part of billionaire tycoon Vincent Tan’s empire, a stockbroking firm, and a fintech company. The 43-year-old Farhash had also emerged as a substantial shareholder in HeiTech Padu Bhd with a 15.91% stake.
Farhash’s rise in big business and sudden display of wealth is a classic example of how ruling politicians enrich themselves through cronies. This is when the prime minister needs someone like MACC Chief Azam Baki to close both eyes on his cronies’ activities in the world of corporate deals – precisely how former finance minister Daim Zainuddin became extremely wealthy.
However, you can only hide the stench of corruption for so long. Anwar Ibrahim, who eagerly wanted to extend Azam’s contract for a “fourth time”, is now facing calls to suspend the country’s anti-graft chief and investigate his shareholding in a financial-services company. Former Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli is leading the drive to pressure his former boss to immediately suspend Azam Baki.
As reported by Bloomberg News on Feb 10, the anti-graft chief mysteriously and suspiciously owned 17.7 million shares of Velocity Capital Partner, according to an annual filing by Velocity Capital to the Companies Commission of Malaysia on Feb 3, 2025. The stake would be worth almost RM800,000 on Feb 11, much more than is allowed under Malaysian regulations.
While Azam Baki is allowed to buy shares in the stock market, a 2024 government circular, which guides a 1993 regulation stipulating the conduct of public officials, says a public servant may purchase shares in a company incorporated in Malaysia on the condition they don’t exceed 5% of its paid-up capital or RM100,000 in value, whichever is lower.
Amusingly, the MACC said on Feb 10 that Mr Azam has “fully complied with the applicable asset declaration requirements” in respect to sources of income and acquisition and disposal of assets, including shares. The MACC chief argued on Feb 10 that the transaction had been properly declared and that he had nothing to hide, adding the shares were bought in 2025 and sold within the year.
The fact that MACC is defending its own chief, mocked by the public as an investigator investigating an investigator, has done more harm than good. The reported value of the stake indicates Mr Azam has “blatantly violated government regulations regarding share ownership by a high-ranking civil servant,” said Rafizi, formerly deputy president of Anwar’s party, PKR (People’s Justice Party).
But Azam, whose current contract as MACC chief commissioner is about to expire in May this year, has also been exposed to owning over 4.52 million shares (1.08% stake) in Awanbiru Technology Berhad as of Jan 13, 2026, on top of the 17.7 million shares of Velocity Capital Partner. His only defence – he no longer holds any shares in any company. But just because he had sold off the shares does not mean he is innocent.
There are at least three irregularities in the share ownership scandal. Firstly, he had clearly violated government regulations regarding the limit of share ownership by a high-ranking civil servant. Secondly, his suspicious source of wealth in purchasing the shares worth millions of ringgit. Thirdly, Azam, who is considered to be a public official under the law governing the MACC, hasn’t publicly declared his assets.
This is not the first time he courted trouble in the stock market. Azam faced a public outcry after a Malaysian journalist reported in late 2021 on his stockholdings and questioned whether they breached rules for public officials on owning and declaring assets. Protesters marched in Kuala Lumpur in January 2022, calling for his resignation and arrest. Anwar’s party was one of the critics back then.
At the time, Azam provided a laughable excuse – one of his brothers had used his trading account to buy shares. The Securities Commission Malaysia investigated, but as expected, concluded that Azam didn’t breach securities law, saying it found no conclusive evidence that anyone else had used his account. No other disciplinary action has been disclosed, suggesting a cover-up among top government agencies.
But that share trading with dubious funding had opened a can of worms. In the same year, then-deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi claimed he had met with the donors, namely “Arab king and prince”, Azam Baki and a team of investigators also claimed that they had met the Arab prince who had allegedly donated RM2.6 billion into former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank account in the 1MDB scandal.
Azam Baki, who was then MACC investigations division director, said he had met with the donor. The team, comprising four MACC officers and one from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), made an official visit to Saudi Arabia at the end of November 2015 to verify whether a Saudi prince had generously transferred US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) to Najib’s personal bank accounts in 2013.
However, hilariously, Azam said he could not disclose any details, including the identity of the donor. Instead of grilling Najib, he said the MACC would investigate the leakage of information on social media regarding his officers going to the Middle East. Exactly why was Azam so upset and furious about his trip being exposed? The answer would be revealed only five years later in 2020.
During the testimony of a witness in 2020 during Najib’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial, former 1MDB investigating officer Mohd Nasharuddin Amir told the court the MACC team of four officers led by Azam Baki did not know whether they had actually met the purported donor, Prince Saud Abdul Aziz Abdul Majid Al Saud, at his palace in Riyadh.
Yet, interestingly, Azam Baki was listed as a shareholder of Gets Global Bhd as of April 30, 2015, where he held 1.9 million shares, as well as 1.029 million shares as of March 31, 2016. He also held 2.15 million warrants in Excel Force MSC Bhd from March 2016. When the scandal exploded, he conveniently blamed the share purchases on his brother, Nasir Baki, for using his stock trading account.
It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that Azam’s sudden windfall could be kickbacks linked to money stolen from 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) sovereign fund. In fact, his pattern of stock investing – buy and sell without regard for profit – smells fishy and could be a classic method of washing or laundering dirty money to legitimise the illicit funds from illegal origins.
While Azam Baki plans to sue Bloomberg for defamation over shareholding claims, it’s too early to tell if he will backtrack later. Obviously, it is a tactic to create a narrative that he is clean because he dares to sue. Crooked Najib also announced his plan to sue the Wall Street Journal in 2015 regarding its report on the 1MDB scandal, only to chicken out and scrap the lawsuit under ridiculous excuses.
Azam and his political master, PM Anwar should understand that established Western media like Bloomberg cannot be intimidated, threatened, bullied, or oppressed like how the Madanistan government uses local agencies like MCMC to block websites critical of the dictatorship. As Anwar desperately tried to defend his errand boy, little did the PM realise that Azam’s dubious stock ownership was just the appetiser.
On Feb 12, 2026, Bloomberg revealed a new explosive scandal – detailing how the MACC under the leadership of Azam Baki is assisting rogue businessmen – known as the “corporate mafia” – in forcefully taking over publicly listed companies by using the anti-graft agency’s extensive powers to arrest, intimidate and threaten charges against company founders and executives.
The Bloomberg investigations exposed a shocking and stunning modus operandi used by a division within MACC known as “Section D”, employing dirty tactics ranging from intimidation, like office raids, to blackmail and threats to life. Azam’s trusted lieutenant, Wong Yun Fui, currently MACC’s deputy director of investigations, is leading the unit, which handles complaints and arrests related to corruption in listed companies.
The dark process begins with a MACC investigation into a company whose executives face charges of financial offences or ongoing lawsuits. A “corruption” investigation by MACC would provide an opportunity for the “corporate mafia” to seize control of these companies. Through MACC interrogation, shareholders or owners would be under pressure to surrender their stakes in the company.
In a dangerous corporate world where the MACC is protected by the Prime Minister, Wong Yun Fui is Azam Baki’s deputy sheriff, who was working hand-in-glove with the corporate mafia to enrich themselves. An investigation into a small accounting issue could lead to a founder of a company being intimidated with guns and death threats by a corporate mafia protected by MACC.
It’s no wonder that PM Anwar’s popularity has plunged like a rock. On one hand, he brags – and lies – about his government’s anti-corruption success. But on the other hand, his appointed sheriff, Azam Baki, is working with the mafia to seize control of companies by threatening, arresting, and detaining executives, sometimes recommending charges against them.
Unless Anwar Ibrahim is dirty like former Prime Minister Najib Razak, he should stop arrogantly being too obsessed with the MACC chief – cut losses and sack Azam. It’s hard to believe that in a country with a population of 34 million, there isn’t anyone who can replace the tainted man. It’s getting out of control when MACC becomes so powerful that no agency can police it. – Finance Twitter