KUALA LUMPUR – Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) co-founder and former vice-chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim died this afternoon, according to several family members. He was 89.
On social media, his nephew Tengku Azman said that the former DAP vice-chairman had breathed his last today, while another relative Tunku Rina Rahida Rahman revealed that he had passed away at the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur earlier today.
Tunku Aziz was an established corporate figure and anti-corruption activist prior to joining DAP in 2008, before being appointed as a senator in Dewan Negara.
However, in 2012, Tunku Aziz resigned from the party after it refused to extend his term in the Senate, due to his opposition of DAP’s support for the Bersih 3.0 protest.
Tunku Aziz, who had co-founded TI-M in 1998, is credited to have had a highly infuential career by countering corruption and promoting human rights and development with various international agencies.
He served as special advisor to then United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan in New York from February 2006 to January 2007. He was responsible for the establishment of the UN Ethics Office during this period.
Tunku Aziz had also served as a member of the World Bank’s High-Level Advisory Group on Anti-Corruption for the East Asia and Pacific region, the Asia-Pacific Advisory Panel on Good Urban Governance, the board of the International Institute of Public Ethics and the UN Development Programme’s advisory panel for the 2002 Human Development Report.
Speaking to The Vibes in December 2021, Tunku Aziz described some of the challenges faced by DAP in gaining the support of the Malay vote bank, some of which had led to his departure from the party.
In the interview, Tunku Aziz said there were issues related to transparency among DAP’s top brass with its Malay members, leading to certain “trust issues”.
He also noted that DAP’s uncompromising stance on policies such as vernacular schools is a “great barrier” to securing Malay support.
At the same time, the former party member observed that for the foreseeable future, race-based politics will remain in Malaysia.
Asked whether he would throw his support behind the current DAP, Tunku Aziz pulled no punches, saying: “Absolutely not. The answer is ‘no’ because it is promoting activities that are totally against my own beliefs.
“For example, promoting street demonstrations even when it was very clear that (Kuala Lumpur) City Hall had declared that Dataran Merdeka was not meant to be used for this purpose. Yet, it (DAP) encouraged anyone to turn up there.
“If you are a lawmaker, you don’t become a lawbreaker, and I will not subscribe to breaking the law. It’s as simple as that. I don’t think I’ll ever support it (again). I’ve completely forgotten about it,” he said. – The Vibes, February 7, 2023
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