PRIME Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob must get his cabinet to act on the allegations against Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Azam Baki, Lim Kit Siang said today.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said if Azam was not prepared to clear his name before the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSCC) on Agencies in the Prime Minister’s Department, then the prime minister must get his cabinet to decide to terminate Azam.

Lim said Ismail must also ask the cabinet to convene a special parliament on January 21 to receive, debate and decide on the report from the PSCC on Azam if he wished to restore public confidence in the anti-graft authority.

“The cabinet should take a further decision that henceforth, the appointment of the MACC chief commissioner will be considered and evaluated by the bipartisan PSCC on Agencies in the Prime Minister’s Department in accordance with the cabinet decisions of August 13, 2018 and July 31, 2019,” Lim said in a statement.

He said this was the last chance for Ismail to save his premiership from becoming a kakistocracy.

He said as it was Malaysia has already suffered the infamy of being labelled a “kleptocracy at its worst” as a result of the 1MDB scandal and having “a convicted criminal for corruption opening an international conference”.

This was in reference to former prime minister Najib Razak, who was the centre of the 1MDB controversy and who had recently delivered an address at the World Chinese Economic Forum.

“Let us not suffer a third infamy where the MACC chief loses all public confidence in his integrity and probity,” he said.

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

The MACC chief said the shares were later transferred to Nasir.

The matter of Azam’s shareholdings was raised in parliament on December 14 by Sungai Buloh MP R. Sivarasa, who asked whether Azam had declared his alleged ownership of 2.15 million in Excel Force MSC Bhd and 1.93 million shares in Gets Global Bhd in 2015, and 1.02 million shares in Gets Global Bhd the following year.

Azam said he had informed his superiors in 2015 about the purchase of the shares by his brother and that they had raised no concerns.

The Securities Commission and the police are looking into the case. – January 10, 2022.