Law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said said that whistleblowers must first report such information to enforcement agencies to be eligible for protection.

“The agency will then assess whether the whistleblower should be afforded protection or not. We (the whistleblower) cannot go to the public domain and ask for protection,” she said.

Azalina added that the government was working on amendments to improve the Act, including provisions to address cases where whistleblowers acted in good faith.

She noted that while rewards for whistleblowers exist, they are not standardised.

Azalina also mentioned practices in other countries which allow whistleblowers to go public if enforcement agencies fail to respond within 90 days.

“In other countries, if there is no response within 90 days, the whistleblower can go public to ensure that the enforcement agency carries out its duties and responds to the report,” she said.

“Our country is not at that stage yet.”

She was responding to a question from Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh) about a recent viral video exposing alleged corruption in Sabah.

Kok inquired whether the Act would protect whistleblowers who went public in cases of public interest.

In November, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) criticised the purported whistleblower involved in revealing an alleged case of Sabah assemblymen taking bribes.

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki said although the individual’s lawyer had only presented the anti-graft agency with an unclear 17-second audio recording, he shared video recordings related to the alleged bribery with online news portal Malaysiakini just days later.

Azam said while the lawyer said his client was ready to provide evidence, he wanted MACC to sign an agreement stating that the client would not be investigated. Azam said the MACC was unable to do so without detailed information of the wrongdoing in question.

He also said the witness was urged to make an official report which would allow him to be protected under the Act.