It is impossible for me to succeed if this pillar of public service is not completely with me. … This country needs change, a level we once reached, unfortunately declined. Economy, stability and discipline. … Even Attorney General Tan Sri Idris Harun is also aware of violations of the law, including embezzlement, and corruption …

— YAB Dato’ Sri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister (29 Nov 2022)

The portfolio which I am helming on Law and Institutional Reform in the Prime Minister's Department involves endeavors which stretch across government. The foremost focus of this portfolio is to address laws that are outdated and make the necessary amendments for laws to be relevant to our times. … laws will be reformed to reinstate rights to the vulnerable, marginalized, and those who are not treated equally in our nation. 

– YB Dato’ Sri Azalina Othman Said, Minister of Law and Institutional Reform in the Prime Minister's Department (3 Dec 2022)

Decades of silenced pleas, reports, scandals: we public service whistleblowers have waited on similar, yet discarded promises. No more excuses: the lights must be turned on in every corner of Malaysia. Today’s historic Unity Cabinet can and must reset Malaysians’ shared destiny by immediate legal protection of our country’s heroes, its whistleblowers.

Whistleblowers paid the price when the Cabinets of 2013 (Najib), 2018 (Mahathir), 2020 (Muhyiddin), and 2021 (Ismail Sabri) irresponsibly ignored the public service’s pleas. Instead, they left our future generations with trillion-ringgit blindspots, high-risk corruptible public institutions, and a poor quality of life—destined to stagnate—for ordinary Malaysians.

Whistleblowers can unite the nation rapidly, visibly, and sustainably: we create positive reinforcement loops that directly solve entrenched failures in every district. Whistleblowers inspire other whistleblowers. We are on the ground where MPs are not: in schools, hospitals, police offices, administrative departments, and each and every level of Ministries.

Malaysia’s lack of whistleblower protection is its own scandal: who benefits when thousands of whistleblowers are attacked, while politicians and senior public service officers refuse full and independent legal protection? Malaysia’s status quo for whistleblowers is an international disgrace and a public humiliation: a class of rotten apples at the top have traded millions of Malaysians’ progress for their own personal wealth, power, and immunity. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s whistleblower heroes are heading towards extinction, unable to expose massive civil and criminal scandals, stunning inequality, and eye watering leakages. This Unity Cabinet must immediately take prescriptive and legal reforms to protect whistleblowers that chose the nation’s truth and prosperity over their personal safety.

Most of Malaysia’s endangered whistleblowers cannot trust the Executive Branch to offer serious, expedient, and fair whistleblower protection. Thus, the Unity Cabinet must also establish a Public Ombudsman, a “People’s Defender” that investigates severe misconduct among civil servants and offers a one-stop resource for whistleblowers: protection, investigation, and up to disciplinary or legal actions. The most serious cases must have an independent investigation and only a Public Ombudsman can provide that safety guarantee. 

Each Ministry must issue and execute a Circular, with immediate effect, that:

1. States any informal or formal retaliation against a whistleblower is one of the highest disciplinary offences and will no longer be tolerated.
2. States that protection of alleged disciplinary, civil, or criminal offenders is a type of criminal gratification under MACC Act 2009 and will be prosecuted.
3. Provide automatic protection against disciplinary retaliation if whistleblowers testify in a civil or criminal Court proceeding.

Parliament must immediately draft, collaborate on, and pass key amendments to the nation’s laws with retroactive effect:

1. Amend to remove contradictory, intentionally-ambiguous anti-whistleblower provisions that silence disclosures: Public Officers Regulations & Discipline 1993 – Section 19; Penal Code – 203A; Sedition Act 1948 – almost in its entirety; Official Secrets Act 1972 – almost in its entirety
2. Extend civil & criminal protection to victims, families, and witnesses
3. Amend in significant portions the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010:

• Allow whistleblowers to obtain legal advice without losing protection
• Allow whistleblowers to report to entities beyond the Executive Branch without losing protection. Examples: Court proceedings, SUHAKAM, self-application, the media.

Parliament must establish a Public Ombudsman outside the Executive Branch:

1. It receives, investigates, offers whistleblower protection, and takes legal or disciplinary action in severe public service misconduct cases. 
2. Its budget is to be a % of the Federal Budget; its key Commissioners should be drawn from legal societies, good governance CSOs & research institutions, and subject-matter experts (e.g., health, children, environment). Former & current public servants & politicians must be excluded due to a perceived or real conflict of interest with investigations into the public service.
3. It has specific departments focused on marginalised populations: rural or poor communities, Orang Asli, East Malaysia, OKU, elderly, children, women.

Signatories:

1. Kasthuri Patto
2. G25
3. Parents Action Group for Education (PAGE)
4. Aliran
5. Pertubuhan Pembangunan Kendiri Wanita dan Gadis (WOMEN:girls)
6. Society for Equality, Respect And Trust for All Sabah (SERATA)
7. Klima Action Malaysia (KAMY)
8. Persatuan Pengundi Muda (UNDI18)
9. Undi Sabah
10. KauOKTak
11. HIVE Educators
12. PACOS Trust
13. Justice for Sisters
14. Save The Schools MY
15. Freedom Film Network
16. Agora Society Malaysia
17. Saiful Nizam
18. Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM)
19. The Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism 
20. Engage Network
21. Rangkaian Solidariti Demokratik Pesakit Mental (SIUMAN)
22. Monsters Among Us
23. The Tiada.Guru Campaign