By Clara Chooi
PETALING JAYA, Aug 2 — PKR is now offering to protect whistleblowers through its own means, following yesterday’s charging of Rafizi Ramli and a former bank clerk over their exposure of banking documents related to the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal.
Now out on bail, Rafizi, the party’s strategy director, announced the establishment of a “National Oversight & Whistleblowers Centre” (NOW) to protect future whistleblowers who, he said, would have been spooked by yesterday’s charges against him.
“The charges showed that the Najib administration does not actually care about these whistleblowers, despite the enactment of the Whistleblowers Protection Act in 2010.
“They (whistleblowers) should actually be protected... not hunted, threatened and then charged,” he said.
Rafizi (picture) said he had been working on setting up the centre for over a month now but yesterday’s events had forced his hand to expedite its launch.
The centre, to comprise members of political parties as well as civil society groups, will be tasked with monitoring whistleblower activities, including handling the exposure of major national scandals by offering protection via legal and monetary aid to those willing to come forward with information.
Rafizi said the centre was modelled after similar set-ups in the UK and the US, and will be run using donations, grants and subscriptions channelled into a “Whistleblower Protection Fund”.
MORE TO COME
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