But the man who spent the past six years making the country a powerful race left behind a question he never satisfactorily answered: What do you do when an anti-corruption chief becomes the story?
It doesn’t look good because of the timing
Azam resigned from his position as chairman of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on Tuesday, on the occasion of his 63rd birthday, handing over his position to former High Court judge Abdul Halim Aman.
His farewell was characteristically combative. In an interview broadcast by the agency on Monday, he made no apologies for his leadership style and made no concessions to his critics.
“If we want to stay safe, we should do nothing,” Azzam said, portraying himself as the leader who pushed the agency to be “bold and extreme.”
He added: “If we do nothing, people will ask what we do with taxpayer money.”
