On 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?
Analysts say Azam’s exit puts Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who stood by him throughout, in a difficult position ahead of the next general election, due by 2028.
It doesn’t look good because of the timing
Azam 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.
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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”.
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“If we do nothing, the people will ask what we are doing with taxpayers’ money,” he added.