Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali is not doing Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak any favour by pushing for stricter punishments under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), a former minister says.

Instead, former information minister Zainuddin Maidin said, strengthening the OSA will only hurt Najib's image

"It will only hurt Najib's image, who compared to his predecessors, is making an effort to portray to the world that our country is more democratic.

"Apandi's statement doesn't help Najib at all, and will only cause foreign powers to intervene with our laws," Zainuddin told Sinar Harian today.

The attorney-general told Sin Chew Daily last Saturday that he wants to amend the OSA to increase the maximum sentence for leaking information to life imprisonment, with 10 strokes of the rotan.

Apandi said journalists who refuse to name their sources when reporting on leaks will also not be spared.

Opposed to leaking gov't secrets, but...

This appalled Zainuddin, a forment chief editor of Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia .

"I too am opposed to leaking government secrets that are always being exposed by the opposition, but amending the Act to include life imprisonment isn't the way to go," he said.

He said the media should also not be punished if it reports on exposes by the opposition as this is second hand information relayed by using terms such as "alleged" and "claimed".

Zainuddin also slammed Apandi for saying that China has stricter punishments for those who leak government secrets.

"What is Malaysia's democracy like? Are we following China, the West or the Arabs? Don't we have our own ways?" he said.

The current punishment for leaking state secrets under the OSA is a jail sentence of between one and seven years.