Imagine a dinner party, and around the table sit politicians, ministers, chairpersons, board members, executives and officials.
Then a stranger arrives. Her name is Truth-and-Accountability.
She asks: "Is there a seat for me?" Suddenly, everyone becomes very busy.
The chairperson looks at management. Management looks at the board. The board looks at the minister.
The minister says it wasn't his department. The politician says he had no authority. The auditor-general says she wasn't called to testify.
Nobody wants to give Truth-and-Accountability a seat.
Welcome to Tabung Haji's accountability merry-go-round.
Former Tabung Haji chairperson Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim has said he was in a non-executive role and didn't know what was happening at the working level.
Nobody expects a chairperson to know everything; but surely he should know enough to ask questions, challenge management, scrutinise the numbers and ask difficult questions like: "Are we sure?" "Can we afford this?"
A chairperson is not expected to run the organisation; but he is expected to ensure that important things do not go unquestioned.
So, the question remains: What did the chairperson know? What did he do with what he knew?
Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki has also denied involvement in Tabung Haji's decisions during his time as deputy minister.
Asyraf said he attended the 2017 signing ceremony with Al-Rawda Real Estate Development and Project Management Co Ltd because he was representing the minister as Malaysia's Chief of the Haj delegation.
We're not saying Asyraf was responsible for the investment, but Al-Rawda eventually resulted in a RM1.86 billion impairment, making it the largest loss among Tabung Haji's 14 problematic investments.
The Finance Ministry said there was no bank guarantee, the due diligence was incomplete and the transaction proceeded on a promissory note.
So, someone approved it, assessed the risks and decided it was acceptable. Who? That is the question.
The Finance Ministry also said 14 problematic Tabung Haji investments resulted in almost RM13 billion in losses.
These are not small accounting errors. Yet we repeatedly hear: I didn't know. I wasn't involved. I had no authority. It was management.
How does an institution entrusted with billions of ringgit approve a transaction of this scale without adequate due diligence or a bank guarantee, and who was responsible for saying, "Stop. This isn't safe"?
Who was watching?
Meanwhile, former auditor-general Madinah Mohamad says she turned up to give evidence to the RCI, waited over 30 minutes, and was never called.
Her office had audited Tabung Haji and flagged two matters in its 2017 clean audit opinion.
So, we have to ask: If the chairperson didn't know, the deputy minister had no authority, and the auditor-general wasn't heard, who exactly was watching the shop?
At the time, the finance minister was Najib Abdul Razak.
However, the RCI did not establish which minister personally approved the individual payments, and Najib, former second finance ministers Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and Johari Abdul Ghani were not interviewed by the commission.
So again: Who approved them? That question deserves an answer.
Repeated governance failures
We have seen variations of this story with Felda, Malaysia Airlines and other government-linked institutions.
The commonalities are: Political appointments. Questionable decisions. Huge losses. Investigations. Reports. Royal commissions of inquiry.
This is how responsibility somehow becomes elusive. Impunity grows because when nobody is held accountable, the next person has little reason to fear getting it wrong. Eventually, the taxpayer pays.
The Tabung Haji RCI report was withheld for years after its findings were completed. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said earlier disclosure could have caused panic and prompted depositors to withdraw their money.
We understand the concern, but surely there is an irony here: If transparency is too dangerous because people might lose confidence, what does that say about the confidence in the first place?
And delay has consequences.
An inquiry is supposed to establish what happened while the evidence is still fresh. Instead, Malaysians were left waiting years after the RCI completed its work. A royal commission should not become a time capsule.
And now, in 2026, we are asking questions about events that happened almost a decade ago.
Justice delayed
That matters, because justice delayed isn't simply justice postponed. Evidence deteriorates. Witnesses disappear. Memories change. People die.
And the longer we wait, the easier it becomes for responsibility to disappear into the cracks. Delay can make accountability harder, not easier.
Former minister Rafizi Ramli alleged the report was delayed for political reasons to avoid upsetting Umno. That remains an allegation, not an established fact.
Regardless of the reason, why did Malaysians have to wait so long?
Now the government has the opportunity to do what should have happened from the beginning: Follow the money. Find who approved the decisions. Find who knew. Find who failed to act.
And if the evidence shows wrongdoing, prosecute. No political protection. No special treatment. No "not me".
If the evidence leads to Umno, investigate the party. If it leads to Pakatan Harapan, investigate the coalition. If it leads elsewhere, follow it there.
Nobody should be above the law.
Tabung Haji is not simply another government-linked institution. Millions entrusted their savings to it, to help them fulfil a deeply important religious obligation. They deserve better than a merry-go-round of explanations.
RM13 billion is too much money to disappear into a fog of "I didn't know".
Prime minister, this is your opportunity. Don't just tell Malaysians that accountability matters. Show them.
Give Truth-and-Accountability a seat at the table, and this time, don't let her leave hungry. - Mkini
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Find her on her website and on X.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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