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By Mihar Dias April 2026
There was something almost pastoral about Tan Sri Azam Baki’s farewell reflections. Jogging. Cycling. Fresh air. Retirement, apparently, will be an extended cardio session. https://newswav.com/A2604_SBlg7L?s=A_mrY46Sv&language=en. One imagines the departing anti-graft chief gliding down a quiet Putrajaya boulevard at dawn, bicycle wheels humming, birds chirping, conscience undisturbed.
And that, perhaps, is the most intriguing part.
For when powerful men retire, the public is rarely interested in their jogging schedule. It wonders about sleep.
Will he sleep well at night?
It is an impolite question, but public office invites impolite questions, especially when one has presided over the nation’s premier anti-corruption agency during some of Malaysia’s most politically combustible years.
Azam’s farewell carried all the familiar notes of valedictory civility — unity among officers, continuity in leadership, gratitude to the King, faith in institutional integrity. The standard music of official departure. https://newswav.com/A2604_SBlg7L?s=A_mrY46Sv&language=en. But beneath the farewell pleasantries lingers a question Malaysians have asked for years: what exactly is the legacy?
Legacy is not measured by contract extensions, nor by farewell applause in Negeri Sembilan. It is measured by what the public remembers.
And public memory can be inconveniently selective.
It remembers controversies more vividly than commendations.
It remembers the ironies.
An anti-corruption chief spending years defending the integrity of the institution while repeatedly becoming part of the national conversation about integrity itself — that was not merely bureaucratic drama. It was almost literary.
In another country, it might have been satire.
In Malaysia, it was governance.
His parting advice that MACC officers set aside internal differences and support the new leadership is sensible enough. Yet it also sounds faintly like a man exiting a family reunion after reminding everyone not to argue once he leaves.
One hopes the institution takes the advice.
One also hopes institutions in Malaysia become stronger than personalities. We have too often mistaken the tenure of powerful individuals for the health of the institutions they inhabit.
That confusion has cost the country dearly.
As for retirement plans, Azam says politics is not on the horizon.
Good.
Malaysia has an overcrowded market for retired officials discovering ideological passions the moment pensions kick in.
The nation can probably survive without another anti-corruption veteran reinventing himself as a statesman, prophet or party strategist.
Jogging sounds healthier.
Cycling too.
Though one suspects history may prove harder to outrun.
There is, after all, something unintentionally poetic in an anti-graft chief retiring into long-distance endurance sports. Perhaps that is fitting. Public scrutiny is itself a marathon.
And then there is the line — “I am a public servant. My duty has always been to serve the rakyat.” https://newswav.com/A2604_SBlg7L?s=A_mrY46Sv&language=en. A noble sentiment.
But in Malaysia, such declarations are less often accepted than audited.
Service is not what officials say at the end.
It is what remains after they leave.
And that is why the question persists.
Will he sleep well at night?
Perhaps perfectly.
Perhaps with the deep fatigue of a man who has weathered storms and sees himself misunderstood.
Or perhaps, in quieter hours, when the bicycle is parked and the cameras gone, there may be occasional visits from unresolved questions.
Institutions have memories too.
History, unlike MACC contracts, grants no extensions.
Still, one should wish the retiree well.
May the jogging be brisk.
May the cycling be scenic.
And may sleep come easily.
Though in this country, those who spent years policing the nation’s conscience should understand better than most:
Sleep is not always earned by exhaustion.
Sometimes it is earned by peace with one’s record.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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