THE Securities Commission (SC), in a statement issued yesterday, said that independent evidence gathered at the inquiry into Azam Baki’s trading account shows that:

1. Azam is the named account holder and had control of the said trading account;
2. Azan operated the account that he had opened, in that he had given instructions to buy, sell and transfer securities from the said account.

Yet in a press conference on January 4, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner said this:

“I explained to the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board that my trading account was used by my brother for his shares tradings and I have no interest nor have any part in this. The shares were bought in the open market and my brother had financed the purchases on his own.

In September last year, Zuraiha Zakri, a civil servant, was charged under section 18 of the MACC Act 2009, which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine of not less than the amount of gratification or RM10,000, for using documents containing false material particulars to make false claims.

Separately, the penal code declares what acts or omission are offences and also provides for its punishment. It specifies the circumstances in which an act or omission will be regarded as an offence.

Are you going to claim that the press misinterpreted your representation or you mistakenly represented that you gave your consent to your brother to use your  account when in actual fact you didn’t?

As the head of MACC, you need to have an impeccable reputation, where your integrity is beyond reproach. Otherwise your continuous tenure as the head of an anti-corruption agency is tenuous.

No doubt you have rights as with every ordinary Malaysian in investing in the stock market, even though you are a civil servant. But there is now a contradiction between what you represented in the press conference on January 4 and the SC’s response yesterday.

You now have a responsibility to clarify. Failure to provide a convincing response to the conundrum now is likely to result in an exodus of foreign investors from this country.

This is a huge responsibility even the prime minister might not be able to shoulder. – January 20, 2022.

* FLK reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.