I refer to the Malaysiakini report Whistleblower Protection Bill fatally flawed .

Wikileaks is an Internet repository of documents, images and videos submitted by whistle-blowing individuals or groups that expose the misdeeds of governmental or corporate institutions worldwide. The identity of whistle-blowers are kept secret by Wikileaks to protect them.

Wikileaks recently leaked a graphic video of a helicopter attack by the US armed forces on a group of civilians that included children. This occurred because two Reuters journalists in this group of people held cameras and they were mistaken for combatants armed with guns.

The message of this video expos é is clear: danger and suffering can result so easily from the stupidity, carelessness and heartlessness of those equipped with and given the authority to use the means of harming or determining life and death.

We see such things happening in Malaysia, of innocents being harmed or killed by those vested with authority. The deaths of A Kugan and Teoh Beng Hock and the more recent case of the police gunshot victim Norizan Salleh spring to mind. These cases attained prominence because someone spoke up.

Other similar injustices have happened, continue to happen, and pass with impunity as they remain unseen or unheard and therefore do not stir the sensitivities of the general public — a matter of out of sight, out of mind.

However the social outrage resulting from the public release of information pertaining to such occurrences can translate into action that can prevent such unjust happenings from recurring.

Malaysians, ordinary folks or civil servants, who own modern gadgets such as cellphones with cameras, can put these to use to tell stories such as those captured by the helicopter video. These could include events of bribe-taking.

The fact that evidence could be so easily produced would itself function as a deterrent to bribe-takers (or bribe-givers).

Where there is a climate of fear over persecution such as in Malaysia and inadequate whistle-blower laws, sites such as Wikileaks shelter actions that respond to the call of conscience.