I am very shocked that the Biro Pengaduan Awam (BPA) does not protect the identity of individuals who had made complaints against various parties.

I was called by one such government agency about the complaint I had lodged against an official in the agency.

This has never happened before. The BPA did not inform me about this procedure and it had taken me by complete surprise since I had always assumed that all complaints are given in strict confidence without the names of the complainants being revealed especially to the agency concerned.

If this is the case, the public will have no choice but to make their complaints in full secrecy by sending out 'surat layang' which do not bear the identity of the writers. Is this what the BPA wants the public to do?

There are valid reasons why the complainants do not want to be identified. Revealing their identity to a third party can expose the complainants to legal action. And this can also put the BPA into trouble later if this happens, considering that they, too, can be liable for their actions in exposing the identity of the complainants despite that they had pledged to keep their identities a secret.

Whatever it is, the BPA should have at least informed the public of their new ruling.