Calling it “bizarre”, Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) executive director Cynthia Gabriel asked how a whistleblower could lodge a report in cases where these agencies themselves were implicated in malpractices.
In a “Women Against Corruption” webinar today, Gabriel called for Section 6 of the Act to be amended to provide more protection to whistleblowers when they expose wrongdoings committed by law enforcement officers.
She said Section 6 states that whistleblowers can only lodge reports to law enforcement agencies – namely the police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), customs department and immigration department.
“I find this current case involving Lalitha (Kunaratnam) disclosing corporate (shares) ownership (of Azam Baki) as a classic example of why Section 6 needs to be amended.
“It (Section 6) says that you can only report to the law enforcement agencies, even when the person who is being called out is the chief commissioner of those agencies.
“How do you report to the very agency where a potential malpractice or wrongdoing has been committed?” she asked at the event organised by Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M).
Her comments come in the wake of a suit by Azam against whistleblower Lalitha who had written two articles exposing alleged corporate share ownership of the MACC chief commissioner.
Azam has denied committing any wrongdoing.
Gabriel lamented that although Section 6 had been brought to the attention of the authorities, no action had been taken to amend it.
At the same webinar, Sutinah Sutan, a former deputy chief commissioner of the MACC, said members of the public were fearful of coming forward to lodge reports.
“MACC receives more anonymous reports than reports lodged in-person,” she said.
Sutinah added that the anti-graft agency has had to embark on various education initiatives to combat corruption due to changing patterns and trends in corruption.
Her remark prompted Gabriel to say that no amount of public education on corruption would be impactful if the top guns in public institutions and politicians were not willing to change.
“Structural changes and reforms in our institutions are needed,” Gabriel added.