No tranquil retirement for Azam Baki

TAN Sri Azam Baki has been a leading news item as he enters the final weeks of his career.

The outgoing Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner has been swarmed by reporters wherever he goes and videos of him singing at a dinner event showed a less seen side of him.

Actually, he is not too bad a singer, while a photo of him in a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses had women commenting that he is “handsome”.

Unfortunately, Azam has also been the target of the fiercest street protest in years.

The more than 1000-strong crowd at last Saturday’s (April 25) protest marched through the street in downtown Kuala Lumpur that is synonymous with the Reformasi movement decades ago.

They carried placards sketched with Azam’s image and scrawled with some pretty nasty comments, sang songs and chanted slogans calling for action against him.

They also carried a “coffin” fashioned out of cardboard to signify the "death of integrity".

While the target was Azam, the star of the rally was Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli who is the driving force in the fight against corruption and to call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the "corporate mafia" allegations and its links to the MACC.

The protesters also demanded that the government make public the investigation into Azam’s shareholdings.

Everything was orderly until the police tried to escort Rafizi to the fringe of the gathering to discuss dispersing the rally. That was when things almost turned unruly because the crowd thought he was being arrested.

Apparently, the police were concerned about security after someone set off fireworks at the protest route, sending people running because it sounded like gunshots.

This is the situation that the new MACC chief Datuk Seri Abdul Halim Aman will be stepping into.

There has been a flood of comments about the appointment of the former High Court judge but the most repeated one was: “Who is he?”.

Very few, including lawyers, knew of Abdul Halim who had gone overnight from a little known former judge to someone whom people are talking about.

There are concerns about whether he has the investigative experience needed of a crime-buster. Some wondered whether an outsider would be able to command an agency as complex as MACC.

Abdul Halim is the second appointment from outside the MACC rank-and-file.

The first was the firebrand lawyer Latheefa Koya whose appointment caused a stir because she was a PKR politician and she did not last long.

There were also comments that Abdul Halim, at 69, is much older than Azam who will turn 63 on May 12.

A lawyer, who asked not to be named, said a little-known judge is sometimes better than a controversial judge but warned that people will start digging into his track record after this.

Besides, said the same lawyer, it makes sense to appoint someone from outside if the aim is to clean up the agency.

“The fact that the King picked him from the list suggests he is thinking out of the box,” said the lawyer.

The new man ought to be aware of public perception that agencies like the MACC have been weaponised by politicians, a trend that became all too obvious in the latter part of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s premiership and which seems to have become a trend.

The post of MACC chief has become highly political and doing his work without fear or favour will be Abdul Halim’s greatest challenge.

Naming Azam's replacement does not seem to have deterred the “Tangkap Azam Baki” campaign.

Last weekend’s protest drew a more mixed crowd with older people joining the Gen Z protesters.

A new generation is now taking to the streets. They demonstrated fervour, daring and commitment to what they claim to be their cause for a better Malaysia.

Some of those who had marched in 1998 also joined the rally but it is evident that the torch has passed to the new generation.

The Gen Z crowd are also surprisingly good speakers. They stood in the rain, on top of the open back truck to address the crowd. They had their own crowd control squad and showed discipline apart from some rude slogans aimed at Azam and the Prime Minister.

A new breed of activists and perhaps even future political leaders are being born on the streets. They represent the voice of Malaysia’s future.

Are those in the government just going to stand by and watch these young people press for reforms, doing what Pakatan Harapan politicians used to do?

Did they think that naming a new MACC chief would pacify critics out there?

The fact that the Tangkap Azam Baki protest went ahead on the day of the announcement suggests that the fight is on.

In their eyes, Azam is getting a soft landing despite the controversies surrounding him and the MACC.

Many have wondered what is so special about Azam to have survived three prime ministers and to have outlived his nemesis Rafizi who lasted only three years in Cabinet.

There were rumours about him being made a senator but Azam said he has no interest in politics and intends to stay active by jogging and cycling.

It may not be a tranquil retirement for him with Rafizi and the anti-corruption storm blowing out there.

For that matter, Azam’s successor is not going to have an easy ride as well.