Official secrets not to protect offenders — Rahman

PUTRAJAYA: Official secrets are not meant to protect anyone breaking the law and are corrupt, said Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

Speaking to reporters after joining his staff at a ministry Chinese New Year gathering here yesterday, he said confidentiality was an important part of an institution in carrying out its duties.

“This is a complex issue because in certain things, the government cannot reveal information due to certain reasons, but then we are accused of being secretive.

“No organisation can be successful if it did not have secrets, not only a nation or government but even the family institution, if we are too open with the outside world, we will collapse,” he said.

Abdul Rahman, who is also Barisan Nasional’s Strategic Communications Director, gave the example of developed nations such as Singapore, the United Kingdom and Switzerland which are successful today because they respected data and information secrecy.

He said there were special channels for complaints about offences including the integrity units of each ministry, the Public Complaints Bureau and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Abdul Rahman, who is also the MP for Kota Belud, also urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to implement Section 29(4) of the MACC Act 2009 to protect the integrity of those accused.

He said the law provides that the nature of the complaint made to the MACC be kept from the media.

“Under the law, the complaint cannot be shared with others and only during prosecution can the identity of the accused be released to the media,” he said, adding that the provision was to protect the accused from wrongful accusations.

“This is because any baseless accusations can spread, and with the provision, we can prevent it happening in order to ensure just ice for all,” he said.

Under Section 29(4) of the MACC Act, contents of a complaint must be kept secret and can only be disclosed when the case is brought to court.