He said a whistleblower is one who had uncovered a wrongdoing and proceeded to inform the relevant authorities about it.

However, when Rafizi made public an excerpt of the Auditor-General’s Report on Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT), he had breached the procedures required to allow him protection under the Whistleblower Protection Act, added the tourism and culture minister.

“Whistleblower means you have information which you can’t make public because of certain reasons like the OSA (Official Secrets Act).

“So you have to go through the proper channels, report it to the police or, if it’s corruption, then report to the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission).

“But obviously, he is a trumpet blower who then claimed that he has to be protected by the Whistleblower Protection Act. There’s a big difference between blowing the whistle and blowing the trumpet.

“Blowing the trumpet is when you announce something which is against the OSA, then you expect to be protected. No way. Official secrets like this have to be a secret,” said Nazri in an interview with FMT yesterday.

He added that Rafizi was just an attention seeker looking for cheap publicity. By announcing to the public the OSA documents he had in his possession, he had clearly infringed the law.

“Don’t tell me the authorities can’t be trusted as that is a lame excuse. He claimed to have a lot of information but we’ve seen that he’s got nothing.

“He is just a person who creates a big drama. You see how he walks when he was arrested by the police, pretending as if he was handcuffed. I don’t trust the man.

“He wants to be seen as if he’s the only one who is right while everybody else is wrong.”

Rafizi was arrested outside the Parliament compound last week for alleged wrongful communication of classified documents.

On March 29, Rafizi claimed during a press conference in the Parliament lobby to have an excerpt from the AG’s report, which he said demonstrated that 1MDB’s finances had affected LTAT’s ability to make timely gratuity payments.