COMMENT | The events that took place five years ago this week were so alarming that they remain etched in memory.

It was late on a Saturday evening when the call came. The caller wanted to meet - urgently.

“The crackdown has started,” he said. “They are after us.”

When we met, the details unfolded. The then Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory board member Rashpal Singh had been arrested on his return from London; anti-money laundering secretariat member Jessica Gurmeet Kaur and MACC deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairi had also been taken in.

The Star had reported: “Three people linked with agencies in the special task force probing the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) controversy have been arrested to assist in police investigations involving Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown. 

"Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said the latest police action was also in connection with the 'leaking of official government information that was misused by certain parties'.”

We exchanged notes: “You have to help us. Abu Kassim Mohamed (who had just retired as the MACC chief) is recuperating after surgery and Mohd Shukri Abdull (photo) (who was the then MACC number two and was in the United States) is busy “fighting from outside with the establishment to protect his officers.”

What could an ordinary scribe do? I was then a member of the MACC’s advisory panel, and I conferred with fellow members. We agreed (not unanimously though) that...