THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption chief commissioner Azam Baki’s impropriety and illegal conduct will not be wiped out simply by suing anti-graft activist Lalitha Kunaratnam for defamation, Lim Guan Eng said.

“Azam suing the whistle-blower Lalitha Kunaratnam for defamation by demanding an apology and RM10 million will not make his impropriety and illegal conduct disappear since Azam’s admission is evidence that he did own the shares and had violated the law by allowing his shares account to be used as a proxy by his younger brother,” the DAP secretary-general said in a statement.

“In fact, this defamation action is unlikely to proceed when there is clearly no cause of action for him against Lalitha who had stated the actual facts, and he clearly intended to cover and distract attention from failing to justify his wrongful conduct,” he added.

The Bagan MP said DAP’s legal bureau had also offered to assist and fully back Lalitha if Azam goes ahead with his suit.

Lawyers representing the anti-graft boss have sent Lalitha a letter of demand.

Lalitha had written a two-part article published on the Independent News Service website titled Business ties among MACC leadership: How deep does it go? Part 1 and 2.

They are demanding that Lalitha apologise for the reports, issue a public apology, and pay damages amounting to RM10 million.

Lim said it is ethically, morally and even legally untenable for Azam to continue his role as MACC chief commissioner after he had admitted to the ownership and purchase of millions of shares and warrants which was transacted on behalf of his younger brother, Nasir Baki, who had used Azam’s shares trading account as a proxy.

The former finance minister said the matter has also come to the attention of the Securities Commission.

“Further for Azam to act against the whistle-blower for stating the facts already disqualifies him from being the MACC chief commissioner, who is legally bound to protect whistle-blowers as MACC is supposed to act as a guardian against those exposing corruption, abuse of power and financial malpractices,” he said.

The DAP secretary-general also said that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s silence on the matter will only add to the failure of his administration.

“For this reason, much as Ismail wants to protect Azam, it is no longer politically tenable for Ismail to do so unless he wants to add on to two more failures than his predecessor, who is known for the failed management of the Covid-19 pandemic and failure to pull the country out of the economic recession,” he said.

He said under Ismail’s administration the Covid-19 epidemic has not shown signs of improvement while the economy contracted 4.5% following the lockdowns.

“The failed management of the flood disaster in several states recently, which caused more than 50 deaths and an estimated RM20 billion in economic losses, is a black stain on Ismail’s record that will only be compounded adversely by his failure to act against Azam,” he said.

These two failures will prove that Ismail will be worse than Muhyiddin and leave him with the unenviable record as the worst prime minister in Malaysian history,” he added.

Azam Baki told the media on January 5 that he had allowed his brother, Nasir, to purchase shares from two companies, using his trading account.

The anti-graft agency chief, however, said the shares were later transferred to Nasir.

This issue was also raised in Parliament on December 14 by Sungai Buloh MP R. Sivarasa who questioned whether Azam had declared the alleged 2.15 million shares owned in Excel Force MSC Bhd in 2015, as well as 1.93 million shares in Gets Global Bhd the same year and 1.02 million shares the following year.

Azam had also said he had informed his superiors in 2015 about the purchase of the shares by his brother and there were no concerns raised. – January 8, 2022.