COMMENT A government that operates in secret is a dangerous government. It will hide all its foul deeds under layers of draconian laws to deter the people from knowing the truth.

Such a government has no right to hold in trust the mandate given by popular consent.

State secrets, if they genuinely help keep the country safe, can be a boon, but if they protect political crooks, they become a bane. In many countries - democracies or rogues states - secrets are used or abused according to the dictates of the government in power.

In Malaysia, the sordid 1MDB affair and the stained political donation were all supposed to be secrets. They were kept under wraps until the cover was blown wide open for all to see and gasp in shock and disbelief.

Even the investigations that followed were to be done in secret until information was leaked out that rang alarm bells in the seat of government: a charge sheet had been prepared against the perpetrator in chief, the prime minister himself.

All these secrets became public knowledge because of the power of the press - printed or online. An overseas publication - The Wall Street Journal fired the first shot that resounded and reached Malaysian shores. It dared to publish the unsavoury details of the '1MDBgate'.

The local online media picked up the trail and went to town with this saga of political intrigue and financial misconduct.

When the online media reported the transfer of an anti-graft buster who was involved in the investigation into the transfer of funds into the prime minister's personal accounts, the authorities swooped on the journalists who reported the 'secret'.

Now, craggy-faced attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali is getting increasingly restless and edgy about all these leaks.

Apandi was appointed at the behest of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and in double-quick time transformed his boss from the villain-in-chief into an angel of innocence. He is cracking the big whip again, this time mulling “stiffer punishments on those who leaked official secrets”.

The evil mind in him is thinking of imposing life imprisonment and 10 strokes of the rotan on those who commit such 'crimes'. He hangs an even bigger threat - communist-style execution of those who let out state secrets.

Music to political scoundrels

Apandi is training his gun mostly on “journalists, editors, assistant editors and editors-in-chief” who refused to divulge the sources of their information. He will charge them all if he “obtains 90 percent of evidence”.

Such an intimidating stand is music to political scoundrels in high office who want to continue with their crooked ways.

Apandi will not have his way. His threats to extinguish the light of press freedom will only fuel the media to work harder to expose the sinister machination of a government gone crazy with power.

The real threat to national security and stability comes not from those who fight vigorously against the evils of corruption but from those who keep secret their nefarious schemes to enrich themselves with ill-gotten wealth.

In many corrupt states, journalists have been killed when they came too close to the kernels of truth in their confrontation with state power. Despite the mortal danger, journalists still continue to shoulder on in their job of seeking the truth.

Apandi can jail journalists for life or execute them, but he can never destroy the bold spirit that moves and guides the world of journalism. No manner of threat can stop journalists, once they are on the trail, from racing to the finishing line. It is a heinous crime to execute journalists for fighting for moral causes.

The constitution, according to Apandi, gives us no right to know state secrets. This is a flawed argument because the people have every right to know how a government operates. They want transparency, not shadows working behind the screens in hushed tones and conspiratorial whispers to plunder the nation's wealth.

Journalists will not collaborate with saboteurs to destroy the country. The information they obtained from reliable sources for a story that tells of sleazy money politics has only one purpose - to save the country from being further ruined by unscrupulous leaders.

Ultimately, it is the people who will judge the integrity of the government. The job of a journalist is to give the people the information they need to pass a verdict on political leaders.

And the job is done when cancerous leaders are cut clean from the body politic.

PHLIP RODRIGUES is a member of the Malaysiakini Team.