On 3 April, a news outlet reported that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim plans to grant another extension to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Azam Baki’s tenure by six months once his tenure ends in May.
If true, this would follow two prior one-year extensions, despite Azam having passed the mandatory retirement age of 60.
The Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Center) wishes to reiterate once more the criticism levied in the wake of the first two extensions in its media statements dated 17 May 2023 and 14 May 2024. In particular, we urge the government to take this opportunity to implement critical reforms to the MACC.
The appointment process of the MACC chief has long been a subject of criticism. Given that Article 40 of the Federal Constitution renders the advice of cabinet binding upon the agong for most of his functions under law, the discretion to appoint and remove the MACC chief under the MACC Act 2009 is effectively held by the prime minister as leader of the cabinet.
This obviously creates an inherent risk of political considerations influencing the decision of who heads the national anti-corruption investigative body.
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Hence, calls to reduce the PM’s discretion over the decision have been longstanding. For instance, in 2015, the Malaysian Bar, C4 Center and several other civil society groups released a joint memorandum for MACC reform. Among other recommendations, it called for the appointment of MACC chief to be made through an independently appointed anti-corruption service commission based on strict criteria.
The national anti-corruption plan for 2019-2023 seemed to provide a possible solution by proposing a public appointments bill to “regulate the exercise of Executive Power in respect of Public Appointments to certain constitutional and statutory offices”. This presumably would cover the statutory office of the MACC chief. However, this initiative was never implemented.
Under the current national anti-corruption strategy for 2024-2028, an initiative calls for “relooking” the requirements for the appointment and dismissal of the MACC chief as a long-term substrategy, with an anticipated period of four to five years for implementation.
Do people in Malaysia have to wait until 2029 for a change to be made to the appointment process of this key public institution?
Anwar Ibrahim said in Parliament on 28 March 2023 that the implementation of an alternative process for appointing the MACC chief would depend on progress made by Parliament. In the event such a mechanism is decided upon and studied by the relevant stakeholders before the end of Azam’s tenure, he would have no issues with it.
The Malaysian government has also made a commitment on the international level in June 2024 by notifying the UN Human Rights Council of its support for recommendation 55.93 received during the fourth Universal Periodic Review, which called for the creation of “permanent independent bodies, such as parliamentary select committees, to oversee appointments to anti-corruption and all oversight institutions, with sufficient resources and independence to perform their function”.
Despite this, no publicly known progress has been made in this regard and the government has not announced any plan to develop an alternative appointments process.
C4 Center maintains that institutional capacity to combat corruption and uphold good public governance in Malaysia will remain inadequate without a sufficient devolution of powers, which have been centralised in the hands of the prime minister.
The MACC plays an extremely important role in detecting and investigating allegations of corruption, and it is granted broad statutory powers in order to accomplish this goal. Therefore, it is imperative that sufficient protections are put in place to ensure the body operates autonomously and in the interests of justice.
Reappointing the same individual – without an independent appointments process – to lead the MACC only serves to entrench a singular mindset and perspective. It also brings forth a risk of personal connections or interests influencing the chief’s decisions.
Although amendments to the governing legislation will take time to enact, there is nothing preventing the government from taking preliminary steps to decentralise and democratise the appointments process, such as by introducing an open call for candidates and receiving input from opposition MPs and civil society representatives.
This is a key opportunity for Anwar to show his commitment to upholding good governance and combating corruption by initiating reform, and we hope his administration does not squander it. – C4 Center
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