KeADILan Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Noor's arrest for disclosing classified Anti-Corruption Agency reports at a press conference last November in connection with its investigations into International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz and former Malacca chief minister Rahim Tamby Chik only goes to confirm that the documents are indeed genuine.

If the authorities, as claimed by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, are sincere in applying the law equally to all citizens, then the question most thinking Malaysians would ask is: Why are Rafidah and Rahim not arrested?

"Why are only the opposition leaders and activists arrested when so many Barisan Nasional leaders had violated the laws of the land with impunity and immunity?" asked former opposition leader Lim Kit Siang.

Ezam is the first political leader to be charged under the Official Secrets Act after it was amended in 1986. The amendments ensured that those found guilty under the Act would serve a mandatory minimum one-year jail sentence and would face five-year disenfranchisement of civic and political rights.

The Official Secrets Act is meant to protect all "official secrets" of the nation. According to the Act, "official secrets" is defined as any document, information and material that may be classified as "top secret", "secret", "confidential" or "restricted", as the case may be, by a minister, menteri besar or chief minister, or by a public officer appointed (to classify such documents).

"The definition of 'official secret' has to be clearly stated in the Act. It should not be defined by politicians as they are not expected to 'turn into angels when they take office'," said Wong Chin Huat, columnist for the Chinese-language Nanyang Siang Pau .

Chinese Organisations 17-point Election Demand Committee spokesperson Ser Choon Ing said that by allowing politicians to control the definition of "official secret" offer room for abuse by the authorities in order to protect themselves.

"Any government document could be given OSA protection and the public will never know what it contains. This outdated Act is against the principle of transparency in government," he said.

Ezam was charged under Section 8 (1)(I) of the Act which states that "any person in possession or control of any official secret or secret official code word, countersign or password and who communicates this directly or indirectly to any foreign country or any other person shall be guilty of an offence punishable with a jail term of not less than a year and not more than seven years".

The OSA has been criticised by activists, politicians and academicians for many years. During the amendment of the OSA in 1986, National Union of Journalists had initiated a campaign to oppose the Act. It was then seen by journalists that the OSA would hamper their professional duty. But the campaign eventually fell flat.

More recently, the NGO-initiated People Manifesto and Women Agenda for Change and the Barisan Alternatif's Common Manifesto, which was launched before the last general elections, had urged for the law to be repealed, or at least, amended.

According to woman activist Zaitun Kassim, the government was penalising the whistle blowers instead of wrongdoers. "The law made the public scared to come forward. Next time who will dare report government wrongdoings?" Zaitun asked.

She said that a society that is haunted by repressive acts would be afraid to stand up for justice.

The OSA, she said, was used by the authorities to shield their cronies and protect their personal interests. "Of whose interest are they upholding the law? The action of the police is bothering a lot of people. They are punishing people who are seeking justice," Zaitun said.

Lim pointed out that what had been revealed by Ezam was also the subject of police reports by sacked deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim regarding corruption in high political circles in July and August last year. Yet, nothing was heard of the police reports.

"The public will have more confident in the authorities if they investigate the allegations made by Ezam," Zaitun said.

But more astounding is that there is no explanation from the authorities as to why, if the two ACA reports were genuine, the anti-corruption body's recommendations for the prosecution of Rafidah and Rahim ignored.

Now that Rafidah and Rahim are both eyeing major posts in the upcoming Umno party polls, it will not be the law but Umno members who will decide the political fate of the two tainted politicians.