VETERAN DAP lawmaker Lim Kit Siang has raised questions about Tan Sri Azam Baki’s position as the MACC chief commissioner, seeing as to how the latter “does not fully understand the meaning of integrity”.
Lim said that Azam’s quibbling over “subpoena” and “invitation” to explain his refusal to appear before a parliamentary select committee (PSC) which would have provided him with a forum to clear himself of conflict-of-interest allegations has been debunked by Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong.
On Sunday (Feb 13) Khoo had pointed out that Azam had turned up for a Public Accounts Committee hearing in Oct 2020 with a mere invitation and as such, his excuse for not turning up after he was invited by the PSC to discuss his controversial share ownership was “lame”.
“Azam could help to minimise the damage to his integrity by declaring that he is willing to appear before a PSC to clear himself of the conflict-of-interest allegations made against him three months ago,” said the Iskandar Puteri MP.
“Malaysians want the MACC to do a better job in fighting corruption.
“In fact, they want Malaysia to be one of top 30 countries in the world with least corruption, as was the objective of the National Integrity Plan launched by the Malaysia’s fifth prime minister Tun Abdullah Badawi.”
The National Integrity Plan was launched to improve the country’s ranking in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 37th place in 2003 to at least 30th position in 2008 and to increase the score of 5.2 in 2003 to at least 6.5 by 2008.
However, recent reports indicated that Malaysia has dropped five spots in the CPI 2021 to 62nd position out of 180 countries in terms of public sector corruption and scored 48 out of 100 points in the index, compared to its score of 51 in 2020.
“Just as Azam does not understand the meaning of integrity, he does not seem to understand Malaysia’s infamy over the TI CPI 2021.
“Can Azmi clear himself of the conflict-of-interest allegations before Parliament reconvene on February 28, 2022?
“Otherwise, Malaysians will have to contend with the question: How can Azam continue as MACC Chief Commissioner when he does not understand the meaning of integrity?” – Feb 15, 2022
