Malaysia has a new anti-corruption chief. What it doesn’t have yet is a clear answer to the questions that dogged the old one
4-MIN READ4-MINIman Muttaqin YusofPublished: 2:29pm, 12 May 2026On his last morning in charge of Malaysia’s anti-corruption watchdog, Azam Baki did what he had always done – talked tough and walked away on his own terms.But the man who spent the past six years making the country’s powerful sweat left behind a question he never satisfactorily answered: what do you do when the anti-corruption chief becomes the story?
It doesn’t look good because of the timingSyaza Shukri, political-science professorAzam stepped down as head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Tuesday, his 63rd birthday, handing over to former High Court judge Abdul Halim Aman.
His farewell was characteristically combative. In a podcast interview aired on Monday by the agency, he offered no apologies for his leadership style and no concessions to his critics.
“If we want to stay safe, we should do nothing,” Azam said, casting himself as a leader who had pushed the agency to be “bold and radical”.
“If we do nothing, the people will ask what we are doing with taxpayers’ money,” he added.
