Opposition ‘won’t back down’ over Azam Baki case, Guan Eng says as Sungai Buloh MP’s aide faces MACC court charge

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 — DAP has asked how many more Opposition leaders will be subject to “reprisals and revenge” for calling for investigations into Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Tan Sri Azam Baki’s alleged proxy share trading.

Its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said this as R. Sivarasa’s service centre manager, KR Naveen, who is also his nephew, is expected to be charged in court with an alleged corruption offence today.

The PKR MP for Sungai Buloh had alleged that the MACC decided to reopen investigations into a 2017 corruption case involving Naveen after he raised the issue of Azam’s share ownership in the Dewan Rakyat.

“Since many Opposition MPs had also raised the Azam shares shenanigans in Parliament, does that mean they can expect to be hounded and framed with trumped-up charges by the MACC?

“I can empathise the agony of Siva’s nephew must be going through since I have been a victim of the MACC’s politically-motivated corruption charges by being charged over investigations that were also concluded four years ago even though not a single cent of gratification was found in my possession or in my bank account,” he said in a statement today alluding to his own MACC charges for which he is currently on trial.

Lim also slammed Azam for refusing to comment further after investigations by the Securities Commission (SC) Malaysia concluded that the latter had full control of his trading account despite telling the public it was used by his brother, Nasir Baki, days before that.

He said the Opposition will not back down despite what he claimed to be the “persecution of whistle-blowers” by the anti-graft body.

“Unfortunately, Azam has refused to explain his lie nor his source of wealth that he can afford to conduct shares trading amounting to millions of ringgit but persisted to insist that the SC had cleared him of any wrongdoing when this is not the case.

“Instead of protecting whistle-blowers, the MACC is betraying itself by persecuting them. The MACC is sadly mistaken if they are deceived into believing that Opposition MPs will bow and back down from seeking the truth of Azam’s mysterious share ownership. Opposition MPs will not desist but persist to get to the bottom of the truth,” he said.

Lawyers have weighed in on the Azam case, saying that despite the SC’s inquiry earlier this month, the MACC chief could still be in breach of the government’s code of conduct for public officers if he neglected to declare the ownership of shares that are now the centre of public attention.

The SC launched the investigation after Azam previously declared during a press conference that his share trading account was used by his brother to buy shares ― a move widely perceived as proxy trading by the public.