Ex-Tabung Haji chief ready for fresh probe as RCI report finally surfaces

The 204-page Royal Commission of Inquiry report into Tabung Haji sat completed since the end of 2022, tabled at multiple Cabinet meetings, yet unreleased to the public for three years and eight months. On July 30, in Jelebu while campaigning for a Barisan Nasional candidate, former Tabung Haji chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim broke his silence on the document that had finally surfaced—and on the allegations of misconduct it contained.

Abdul Azeez said he was ready to face another investigation if authorities demanded it. He did not shy from the scrutiny. But he also wanted the record clear: the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's then-chief commissioner, Tan Sri Azam Baki, had issued an official letter in 2021 stating there had been no abuse of power or misappropriation. In 2018, when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister, Abdul Azeez had been detained for 14 nights in a lock-up and subjected to a forensic audit. No charges followed. The police had called him 11 times to assist in forensic investigations. Two weeks before his July 30 statement, he said, police told him their file was complete and awaiting only a No Further Action directive.

What troubled him was the timing. Why had the RCI report, which the commission itself said could be made public, remained sealed for so long? And why release it now, during the Negri Sembilan state election campaign? "I do not know why it was not released for three years and eight months," he said. "Only the prime minister knows." He questioned whether the report's emergence was driven by political calculation rather than a genuine desire for accountability.

Abdul Azeez had actually pushed for the RCI himself. He had appealed to Dr Mahathir, to then-deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and to former minister Datuk Seri Mujahid Yusof Rawa to establish one. Later he made the same request to former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, without success. It was only when Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob became prime minister that the RCI was agreed to. "If Umno had stolen, if my minister had stolen, if I had stolen as TH chairman then, I would not have asked for an RCI," he said. "Let the people judge."

He also clarified his role. As a non-executive chairman, he did not have absolute authority to approve transactions or investments unilaterally. Every proposal had to pass through the investment panel and risk management division before reaching the board of directors. "I was not an executive chairman. I was only an ordinary chairman," he said. The top management bore responsibility for providing detailed explanations and reports after those divisions had reviewed them. It was a distinction he believed the public needed to understand.

Abdul Azeez pushed back against what he saw as revisionism about Tabung Haji's history. For 15 consecutive years, including the seven years he served as chairman, the institution had been recognized as having the world's best haj management. More than 1.4 million Malaysians had performed the pilgrimage under its stewardship, supported by welfare and healthcare systems without parallel. "They are now only strengthening what is already there," he said of the current administration. "Do not deny our previous contributions."

He ended with an appeal to depositors and the public: read the RCI report yourselves. Do not let others shape your understanding of it. The document was finally in the open. What it actually said, he seemed to suggest, would speak for itself—if people took the time to listen.