THE government must set up a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to look into claims of impropriety in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim said. 

He said the RCI could also help uncover the truth about the claims of conflict of interest involving chief commissioner Azam Baki. 

“I hope something concrete will be done. The government should seriously consider setting up an RCI into this affair, nothing less than that,” Aziz, who is a former chairman of the MACC advisory board, was reported as saying today.

He was commenting on queries raised by economist Edmund Terence Gomez on Azam’s ownership of a large number of corporate shares in 2015 and 2016, and may not have declared them. 

Aziz said the allegations against Azam called into question the credibility of the agency, which can be cleared by an RCI. 

“First of all, I think Gomez should make a police report if he believes there is a possibility of a cover-up within MACC,” Aziz was quoted as saying. 

“But I’m very happy that he has brought it up because I think it is critically important for MACC to be totally clear.

“If we cannot trust MACC to be clean, just like if we can’t trust police to enforce the law, who can we trust?”  

He also offered himself to be part of the RCI.

It has been claimed that Azam was the owner of 1.93 million shares in Gets Global Berhad as at April 30, 2015, and a further 1.029 million shares as at March 31, 2016. 

Azam is also claimed to own 2.156 million warrants in public-listed Excel Force MSC Berhad while his younger brother owned 3.728 million shares in Gets Global.

The failure to address these claims has also resulted in Gomez resigning from the oversight panel of MACC.

Aziz also said there had been speculation of impropriety in MACC during his time at its advisory board, but it was only “rumour”. 

“There were no open allegations, but there were rumours. But naturally, I cannot act on rumours. I think it wouldn’t be fair to jump to conclusions based on speculations,” he said. 

“I know there are rumours all the time, but today, Gomez has brought the issue out into the open, and he must have something concrete to be able to do so.” – January 2, 2022.