Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said believes attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali’s decision to amend the Official Secrets Act (OSA) is what the country needs at the moment.

Believing that Apandi is only concerned about leakages on confidential information, Azalina pointed out how there have been various breaches when it came to secret government information.

“You don’t get this (situation) in other countries, but you get a lot of breaches in Malaysia.

“I think what the attorney-general said is very timely. How can we govern if there are a lot of breaches by government officers (and) third parties?” she said.

Therefore, there must be a separation between freedom of expression and breach of trust, stressed Azalina.

She also admitted that there are agencies that whistleblowers can go to in order to expose misappropriations - but exposing everything under the sun would be wrong.

'Rakyat must be more matured'

“This is because sometimes we don't know whether the information is supposed to be kept secret or otherwise.

“I think even in America if too much information is exposed you will be arrested, so why should it be different for Malaysia?

“The rakyat must be more matured. They must be very matured to understand all these issues,” she added.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden ( photo ), a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is now in exile in Russia after leaking some 200,000 documents exposing the US' global espionage activities.

Azalina was also asked to comment on PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli’s ongoing Banking and Financial Institution (Bafia) charge against him.

Questioning what was “so special” about Rafizi, Azalina pointed out that the case seemed to be stationary since he was charged in 2012.

“Since this is the first case under Bafia, it should set a precedent for the finance sector," she said.

The delay in the case, said Azalina, would only affect the economy as people would be worried to even open bank accounts.

“Because people may know how much we have in our accounts, this will even lead to kidnappings."

Rafizi had claimed trial to disclosing Public Bank customer-profile documents comprising balance summaries relating to the National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd, National Meat and Livestock Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd and NFC chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail, to media consultant Yusuf Abdul Alim and to The Star reporter Erle Martin Carvalho in 2012.

In August last year, Rafizi obtained a stay from the High Court in Shah Alam pending the hearing of his appeal to declare that the charge to be unconstitutional.