REPRESENTATIVES of 17 civil society groups and eight political parties will lead a street protest this weekend if no action is taken against Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Azam Baki over his share purchase.

The group in a statement this morning urged Malaysians to gather in front of the Sogo shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur at 11am on Saturday.

The group demanded the immediate arrest and indictment of Azam and that the MACC be restructured and placed under parliamentary oversight.

All leaders and high-ranking officials must stop acting in their own interests, said the statement.

“Corruption has a painful effect on the people at a time when the cost of living and the price of goods are rising.

“People in the eight flood-affected states are being squeezed with the challenge of restarting their lives without adequate government assistance,” it said.

Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat, Democratic People’s League, Young Voters Association and the National Association of Students were among the organisations behind the statement.

The political parties with them included Muda, PKR, DAP, Amanah and Pakatan Harapan.

Last week PKR youth members staged a protest in front of MACC headquarters in Putrajaya following the revelation that Azam had owned millions of shares in two companies in 2015 and 2016 when he was head of the MACC investigation unit.

Concerns were raised over whether he had declared the shares as required of a civil servant and how he had acquired the money to buy the shares.

Azam has explained that his brother had bought the shares using the MACC chief’s trading account, which meant they could have violated the regulations of the Securities Commission.

The MACC anti-corruption advisory board, an internal oversight panel, said last week it accepted Azam’s explanation and found him free of any wrongdoing.

This sparked more public anger, raising calls for the anti-graft agency to be placed under parliamentary oversight and for an independent investigation into the case.

The Securities Commission has said it will question Azam. – January 18, 2022.