Malaysia: Azam Baki demands apology, MYR10mn damages from whistle-blower

• Political economy professor Edmund Terence Gomez said the MACC’s ‘tell-all’ presser on 5 Jan 22 to explain the controversy surrounding MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki has raised more questions than answers.
• Gomez said the fiasco has not only highlighted issues with the MACC’s administration but also its oversight committees which are supposed to keep the graft buster accountable but have instead resorted to exonerating the MACC chief commissioner.
• “These new issues relate to three core questions: first, is administration within the MACC so poor? Second, can the Advisory Board act impartially, as well as appropriately, when dealing with serious allegations of impropriety by senior MACC officers? Third, has Azam’s response raised new legal and regulatory questions about his business interests? I will deal with these issues separately.”
• Meanwhile, Azam has initiated legal proceedings for defamation against the whistleblower who first published the shareholdings allegations against him.
• The whistleblower, Lalitha Kunaratnam, had posted on Twitter a snippet of a letter of demand sent to her by Azam’s lawyer.
• “I have received a letter of demand from MACC chief commissioner. Thanks,” she said in the tweet. In a statement later, political economy professor Edmund Terence Gomez said the letter of demand is an act of “serious intimidation”.
• “I am shocked, even appalled, that this whistleblower, who raised legitimate questions of national interest, is now being sued by Azam. By sending this letter of demand to the whistleblower, what is now occurring is nothing more than serious intimidation by Azam,” he said in a statement.
• Azam’s lawyers are demanding Lalitha to make a public apology for a report she wrote on this matter and is asking her to pay damages amounting to MYR10mn.
• Gomez called on Azam to withdraw the letter of demand immediately and to cease his attempt to victimise the whistleblower. Instead of initiating legal proceedings against the whistle-blower, Azam should be publicly disclosing all his business interests in order to protect the image and integrity of the MACC, Gomez added.
• Aside from Azam, Gomez also called on Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim to jointly act and begin an immediate review of the MACC.

External Link : https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/605918

External Link : https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/605918