TWO lawmakers on the Special Select Committee on Agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department want the parliamentary panel to meet over allegations of conflict of interest against Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki.

Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong and Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin urged the committee chairman Kuala Krai MP Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman to call a meeting.

“We have already proposed such a meeting to the members of the special select committee, including to the chairman, Kuala Krai, to call a meeting next week to question Azam regarding the allegations against him. We urge the other members of the special select committee to support our call,” Khoo and Chan said in a statement today.

The committee should meet next week so that a report with recommendations can be prepared and tabled to the Dewan Rakyat when it convenes on February 28.

The house will sit for a new session, its fifth for the current term, from February 28 to March 24.

Khoo and Chan said they agreed with Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang who yesterday made the call for the special select committee to urgently address the allegations against the MACC chief.

“We view the issue seriously and agree with Kit Siang on the trust deficit in the MACC that has eroded to unprecedented levels. Azam Baki has tarnished the good name of MACC and Malaysia on the international stage,” Khoo and Chan said.

Azam is alleged to have held a large number of shares in a company called Gets Global in 2015 and 2016, and it is unclear if he had ever disclosed these assets.

Sungai Buloh MP R. Sivarasa made the claims against Azam and called for an investigation into them on December 14.

On December 27, Dr Edmund Terence Gomez resigned as a member of the anti-graft agency’s Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel over inaction by the heads of MACC’s oversight bodies to act on the matter.

Email correspondence with panel chief Borhan Dolah and MACC advisory board chairman Abu Zahar Ujang that Gomez released to the media showed Gomez had since November 10 written to them several times to address the issue and that nothing was done. –  December 30, 2021.