Civil servants who lodge a report against their corrupt superiors should be protected through amending the Whistleblowers Protection Act 2010, said G25, a national group of moderate Malay-Muslim leaders.

"It is essential that government servants who make the reports against their superior officers are protected from harassment such as being charged under the Sedition Act 1948 and the Official Secrets Act 1972. The Whistleblowers Protection Act should not merely exist as window dressing," the group said in a statement. 

"It is imperative that it be reviewed as soon as possible so as to remove the restrictions to the kind of information that whistleblowers are allowed to disclose and to whom they can disclose," the group added. 

G25 also said that the fight against corruption must be addressed at the political level to ensure that our elected representatives are individuals of good character, who are free from corruption.

Politicians should not be spared from appropriate action under any circumstances, they said, as otherwise it would undermine the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) recent efforts.

"When politicians indulge in illegal money politics to win the elections, they tend to get sucked into a web of intrigue and deceit, from which they find it difficult to get out," G25 said.

That is why, they added, Malaysia suffers from a bad reputation with regards to good governance.

They hope that the recommendations by the technical committee on political financing, set up by the government, and the proposals by G25 and the coalition of 70 NGOs will be enacted into legislation soon.

This will lessen the pressure on business contributions and ensure fair elections, they said.

"Time is of the essence as elections are anticipated to be held soon, and these proposals must be implemented in a substantive and comprehensive manner to make the process credible and respectable in the eyes of our people and the world," it said. 

There has been a surge of arrests of civil servants by MACC recently, which has received praise from all quarters for showing the commission's commitment to the fight against corruption.

MACC chief Dzulkifli Ahmad, however, had also said that they will wait till after the upcoming general elections to arrest corrupt politicians.

This has also received brickbats, especially from opposition politicians.