Malay rights group Perkasa today expressed concern over the attorney-general’s plan to amend the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA), saying the move could cause a revolt.
Its information chief Hassan Basri Muhammad said the group was concerned that Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali’s intention to change laws on confidential government information by imposing a heavier punishment on those involved in leaking such secrets would backfire on the government.
“Perkasa sees and expresses concern over bigger security issues when the public rise up and revolt to voice out their dissatisfaction when there are attempts to conceal and protect information on embezzlement through the amendment of the Official Secrets Act.
“The attorney-general should work on defending information and sources in efforts to create a clean and transparent government under the good governance principle as well as increase people’s confidence,” Hassan said in a statement.
He also questioned the A-G’s “sudden” suggestion to amend the law, adding that there was “something suspicious” about the proposal to impose heavier punishments including life imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane for offenders.
“The question is, how is exposing information on tender problems and business that do not follow the rules, corruption, embezzlement, fraud and others an issue of national security?” he said, adding that Perkasa believed the A-G’s efforts to amend the law was due to his concern about people’s awareness on exposed documents concerning misconduct and misappropriation.
He said Perkasa concurred with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ)’s suggestion that the proposal was an attempt to keep the public and media practitioners from reporting wrongdoings of certain quarters. – February 9, 2016.