COMMENT | The MACC must seem like a house of cards. Last month, three MACC officers were arrested for a gang robbery case involving losses of RM700,000.

This month alone there were two scandals: One involving a senior MACC enforcer for allegedly misappropriating RM25 million in cash, the other involving the MACC chief himself, Azam Baki.

These scandals could either mean that things are going well as the MACC house is being cleaned of its inglorious officers, or it could mean that things are going very badly with corruption reigning at Malaysia’s foremost anti-corruption agency. Either way, MACC’s reputation is at stake.

It is no wonder, therefore, that when the scandal involved him personally that Azam Baki had to use a politician’s playbook, particularly Najib’s in 1MDB. I found three tactics reminiscing of the old playbook: How to defend yourself, how to silence others, and how to stay on.