Former DAP lawmaker Charles Santiago has insisted that only a full disclosure of the shareholdings of MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki will suffice.
“The demand is simple, and it is non-negotiable: release the report in full. Not summaries, not selective briefings, not carefully curated excerpts. Full disclosure,” he said in a statement.
Charles argued that the continued non-release of the report is indefensible, signalling a political culture still clinging to secrecy and control.
“Worse, it normalises the idea that the public can be managed, rather than informed. That is not governance, and certainly not the kind of governance we were promised by Pakatan Harapan and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim,” he added.
He was responding to a Bloomberg report quoting sources claiming that Anwar had asked “key people” in the probe of Azam’s shareholdings to hold off from making their findings public.
This pause is reportedly meant to allow law enforcement agencies to complete separate investigations into the “corporate mafia” allegation implicating the MACC, and to revisit the matter in the cabinet.
Bloomberg also claimed that Anwar planned to let Azam step aside after his contract expires in May, while the anti-graft chief allegedly lobbied to become a senator after retiring from civil service.
Silence is not golden
“This is precisely the kind of information that, in any functioning democracy, must be subjected to immediate and transparent public scrutiny,” Charles said.
“What we are witnessing instead is a familiar and deeply corrosive pattern: opacity justified by silence, and silence defended by power.
“If the report exists, and multiple credible sources suggest it does, then withholding it is not administrative caution; it is political obstruction.
“There is no intellectually honest argument for keeping findings of this magnitude hidden from the very public whose institutions are implicated,” he added.
Charles emphasised that if the report is inaccurate, it should be released and dismantled with evidence.
“If it is accurate, release it and confront the consequences. Anything else is a deliberate evasion of accountability, force-fed to us as indignation,” he said.
Matter of public trust
He also warned that the stakes go beyond individual reputations, with the credibility of Malaysia’s anti-corruption framework itself on the line.
“Institutions like the MACC derive legitimacy not from proclamations of integrity, but from demonstrable transparency.
“The moment findings are suppressed or even perceived to be suppressed, that legitimacy deteriorates into suspicion. And once public trust erodes, no amount of official reassurance can easily restore it,” Charles added.
Yesterday, PAS demanded a response from the government and challenged Anwar to sue Bloomberg if the report proved inaccurate.
Azam, whose tenure has been extended three times by Anwar, faces public scrutiny after Bloomberg and Malaysiakini reported that he owned significant shares in two companies, exceeding civil service limits.
In response, the government set up a special committee led by Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar to examine the compliance and regularity of 17.7 million shares that Azam purchased for around RM1.5 million.
The cabinet received and discussed the committee’s findings on March 11, but did not disclose them.
Authorities, including the police, Inland Revenue Board, MACC, and Securities Commission, were also ordered to investigate the alleged “corporate mafia”.
MACC has issued a firm denial, dismissing the claims as baseless and alleging they are part of a smear campaign aimed at undermining the agency’s reputation. - Mkini
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