KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and other enforcement agencies have successfully recovered RM15.5 billion in assets in the past two and a half years, Tan Sri Azam Baki said today.
Speaking in a special broadcast for the 2025 International Anti-Corruption Day, the MACC chief commissioner said the commission’s primary focus has shifted to tracing and recovering assets stolen through corruption, smuggling, and other crimes, and returning them to the people.
Azam credited the success to improved inter-agency collaboration through the Malaysian Anti-Financial Crime Taskforce (MATF), which has broken down the old “silo” mentality among enforcement bodies.
He highlighted that the lack of information sharing is a major weakness in law enforcement, a lesson learned from countries like the United States after the 9/11 attacks.
“he primary goal is to ensure that all enforcement agencies involved are able to trace and recover assets stolen or lost through corruption, smuggling, and other crimes, and return them to the people,” he said.
Azam also linked the MACC’s own transformation to Malaysia’s political history, saying that the failure to effectively handle corruption before 2008 contributed to Barisan Nasional’s historic loss of power for the first time.
“It was not just about politics but public perception,” he said.
“The people had begun to talk, to observe and to judge. If we did not change our methods in prevention, operations and public education, we would have continued to fall behind.”
He explained that this public pressure led to the MACC’s transformation in 2009, which gave it a new structure, enhanced powers, and a unique system of oversight from five independent panels.
Since 2023, he added, the commission has adopted an even more proactive approach that is expected to continue for the next three to five years.
