PMX’s incessant backing gives impression “he’s in cohort” with Azam Baki’s shareholding fiasco 2.0

 

ONE wouldn’t be too far-fetched to assume that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is very much alone in vouching for the innocence of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki in the latter’s shareholding controversy.

In a rare show of solidarity with detractors, even his own party led by former economy minister Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli has demanded that the graft buster head honcho whose third post-retirement contract extension is set to expire on May 12 “be suspended pending an immediate independent and transparent probe”.

Stating that he would be lodging a police report against Azam following subsequent allegations in a Bloomberg report that he intervened in a case involving firearms, the vocal Pandan MP further confirmed his attendance at the Himpun dan Lawan #Tangkap Azam Baki rally slated for tomorrow (Feb 15) at SOGO Kuala Lumpur.

Echoing the former PKR deputy president is DAP lawmaker Ramkarpal Singh who called for the 62-year-old Azam to be put on garden leave, “thereby affording him an opportunity to be heard”.

This follows the damning Bloomberg exposé recently that Azam was had held 17.7 million shares in Velocity Capital Partner Bhd worth close to RM800,000 which effectively made him a major shareholder.

PMX turning a deaf ear?

Aside from the Bursa Malaysia Main Market-listed moneylending/hire purchase service provider, Malaysiakini further reported that the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) records found that Azam had some 4.52 million shares in another PLC, Awanbiru Technology Bhd, as of Jan 13 this year.

“Although Azam has denied wrongdoing in respect of his shares in Velocity and insists that he had properly declared his said shares in the said company, he has yet to comment on his purported shares in Awanbiru,” attested the former law and institutional reform deputy minister who is also the Bukit Gelugor MP.

“There can be no doubt that both matters must be further probed by an independent third party as it is elementary that Azam cannot be the judge of his own cause.

Recall that this is not the first time that shares dabbling allegations have been levelled against Azam.

In January 2022, the Securities Commission (SC) cleared him of another questionable share purchase in 2021 in which he claimed that his brother had purchased the said shares under his name.

Henceforth, it can be imagined that detractors are ridiculing the proposed task force to be chaired by the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar which PMX has mooted to probe Azam’s shareholding scandal “as the right hand investigating the left hand”.

Beyond that, PMX’s very reluctance to order a more drastic action against Azam as how he ordered a “clean up” of illegal houses of worship (which clearly refer to Hindu temples) has set tongues wagging of his own innocence among the Malaysian public – many of whom want Azam to step down.

Likewise, the police, too, have been ridiculed for commencing its investigation on Bloomberg which has since declared that the financial portal “will stand by our reporting” as many do not see the report as defamatory given Azam himself has admitted to having purchased the said shares.

The probe conducted by the Classified Criminal Investigation Unit (D5) under the Prosecution/Legal Division of Bukit Aman’s Federal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will be carried out under:

• Section 500 of the Penal Code for defamation which provides for imprisonment of up to two years or a fine or both upon conviction, and
• Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of network facilities or network services which carries a fine of up to RM500,000, imprisonment of up to two years or both.

- focus malaysia