But Azalina, other countries don’t have RM2.6b scandal

YOURSAY | ‘And no other country protects its leaders from such gross misconduct.’

Other countries don't have breaches of secrecy, says Azalina

Vijay47: Minister in the PM’s Department Azalina Othman Said, strange you should mention the absence of leaked information overseas.

Then again, maybe not so strange when we consider the displays of intelligence you have afflicted us with so far and the fact that your entire wealth of knowledge is limited to Umno and its many scandals, financial and otherwise.

Apart from Edward Snowden, you may have heard of two gentlemen, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. These are reporters from the Washington Post who revealed the truth behind the Watergate break-in.

By the way, that Watergate became the mother of all future gates, including our own 1MDBgate and the latest, AGgate. Because the real facts were made known to the American public, and their president, Richard Nixon, was shown to be lacking in integrity and he had to resign.

Mind you, Dickie was not personally at the break-in, it was his men who engineered the illegal act, and yet he was held responsible. Can we hope for that in Malaysia? Perhaps you, being a lawyer and all, can set the ball rolling.

Odin Tajué: Azalina, I shan't say too much, because the depth and span of your worldview are obviously shallow and narrow respectively, and thus you would not comprehend what I actually have in mind to say.

Furthermore, Vijay47 has already provided excellent examples. I shall say only this. In other countries, state secrets have to do with information that, if divulged to inappropriate or unauthorised parties, would compromise the security of those countries.

They have acts to serve as preventive measures to forestall the possibilities of leaks occurring, and which provide for appropriate punishments to offenders.

In your case, you want to protect not Malaysia but corrupt government leaders and their families, cronies and friends, and you want to punish whistleblowers and the media people.

Negarawan: Azalina is apparently not intelligent enough to differentiate between selling secrets for profit, and publicly revealing secrets to expose corrupt officials.

The latter is a patriotic act, especially in a situation where the judicial system is corrupt and the rakyat live under unjust political oppression.

Ipohcrite: Indeed, exposing corruption and wrongdoing by the regime in power is not breaching secrecy; in fact, it is a noble and patriotic act.

Azalina has a perverted sense of what is right and wrong. And if the same exposes on 1MDB were to happen in other countries, the entire cabinet would immediately resign and a new election called.

Kalvin Rekhraj: No other country protects its leaders from gross misconduct. Azalina as a qualified lawyer should know that reporting a misconduct in any sense is provisioned in the Malaysian law.

If there is a breach in national security secrets then by all means charge the perpetrator, however exposing misconduct should be viewed as whistleblowing.

Sirach: This apple polisher extraordinaire should read the Malaysiakini article by Malaysiakini's Phlip Rodrigues.

It says precisely what the ordinary Malaysian thinks about the attorney-general's proposal for life imprisonment for whistleblowers and journalists.

It is the sworn duty of the media to expose the evil and corruption in government. To attempt to muzzle whistleblowers under the false rubric of "official secrets" is dishonest and egregious in the extreme.

It will lead the country down a slippery slope toward the most repugnant form of totalitarianism.

Saya Pun Nak Cari Makan: Other countries do not have breach of secrecy issues simply because their governments are transparent and accountable.

Their prime ministers do not have secret mega donations, and neither do their PMs have unknown people transferring RM42 million into their accounts without informing them.

Kingfisher: If there prevails responsible and realistically transparent governance, there is every likelihood that there will be a diminish in whistleblowing.

Whistleblowing takes place when there is public discontent on governance and especially arising out of corruption, and abuse of power by governing elites. To tighten the laws with increase severity is in the final analysis and in the long run counterproductive.

Firstly, those in governance even the honest ones will come under increasing disapproval/disfavour and suspicion by the general public.

Secondly, and especially burdensome to the nation as a whole, is it might give rise to a situation where the "knaves" in governance, if any, will get embolden to continue and even increase corrupt practices and abuses of power.

Yes, obviously every country worthy of national safety, security and integrity requires legislation on official secrets but not for covert purposes of protecting the unlawful elements in governance.

Anonymous_1408265047: In most developed countries it is an offence to conceal a crime. In Malaysia, it is an offence to report a crime in some instances. -Mkini