COMMENT | On Mar 19, 2013, following an exposé on Abdul Taib Mahmud, who died last week, PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim urged then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to investigate serious corruption allegations against the then-Sarawak chief minister.

“If Najib has backbone and courage, it is impossible for him to stay silent on this,” he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

He argued that the information and evidence adduced in the Global Witness exposé were so compelling that it called for action.

The MACC investigated Taib but he was cleared despite strong video evidence from international NGO Global Witness. The MACC chief then, and now, is appointed by the prime minister and holds office at his pleasure.

After the poor showing of BN in the 2008 polls, it needed the states of Sarawak and Sabah, especially the former, to bolster its position as the ruling party. The strongman in Sarawak was Taib. It was pretty much him until almost his recent death with no one daring to go against him.

Now, Anwar has a...