Malaysia's top anti-corruption cop files a defamation lawsuit against a whistleblower

In a case viewed by some as a bellwether and test of the country's rule of law, Malaysia's anti-corruption czar has sued a local journalist for defamation for pieces challenging the legality of his past shareholdings.

Azam Baki, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's chief commissioner, sued Lalitha Kunaratnam on January 12 for $2.38 million in damages and costs stemming from a pair of articles published by the Independent News Service, a local online news organisation, in October.
Lalitha lists Azam's purported economic interests and links with them, questioning if they were legally declared or if they pose a conflict of interest.

According to the reports, as director of investigation at the MACC in 2015 and 2016, Azam had roughly 3 million shares in two firms and over 2 million warrants in another, potentially violating legal limits for public officials.
During Azam's climb through the ranks at the commission, his brothers built up their own significant commercial interests, according to the stories.

At a news conference on January 5, Azam denied any wrongdoing and stated that he no longer owned any stock in any company.
He said that in 2015, his brother, Nasir Baki, exploited his trading account to purchase shares, which were then moved to his brother's account later that year.

Hundreds of people demonstrated in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, on Saturday to demand that Azam resign over the allegations.
Some protesters reported that police closed major roads and metro stations around the event site in advance in order to reduce the size of the throng.

According to rights groups, Azam's lawsuit reflects a diminishing space for the free press and increased persecution of journalists since the progressive Pakatan Harapan coalition's government collapsed in early 2020.
From 2020 to 2021, Malaysia dropped 18 places in Reporters Without Borders' annual press freedom index, the most decline of any country that year.

"Certainly, there's been a worsening trend in terms of how the government engages with the press, in terms of how the government understands the role of the press, from the time of Pakatan Harapan [collapsing] to the current administration," said Alyaa Alhadjri, a representative for Gerakan Media Merdeka, or Geramm, a local press freedom advocacy group.

"I believe [this lawsuit] exemplifies that," Alyaa said.

"Clearly, it was an attempt to intimidate and harass," she continued.

The Asia-Pacific director of Reporters Without Borders, Daniel <deleted>, said Azam's lawsuit was plainly intended to silence debate about his purported financial interests, and that there was more at stake than the free press.

The complaint, he added, "clearly breaches the mission of the MACC, which is charged with investigating corruption matters."
Malaysia's rule of law is in jeopardy."

For years, Malaysia has had a reputation for chronic government corruption.

Corruption issues including the suspected misappropriation of billions of dollars in public monies aided Prime Minister Najib Razak's government's defeat at the polls in 2018.
Najib, who is still a member of parliament, was found guilty of abuse of power, breach of trust, and money laundering and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
He is out on bail pending an appeal and denies any wrongdoing.

Through a succession of political defections in parliament, Najib's tarnished party, the United Malays National Organization, has similarly clawed its way back to power without holding new elections.

According to Cynthia Gabriel, executive director of the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism, a local NGO, Azam's defamation complaint against Lalitha now jeopardises the credibility of the country's top corruption-fighting body.