Corporate Governance With Reference to the Role of Whistleblowing in Malaysia (cet.2)

Corporate governance has now become a new paradigm of good responsible corporate business. As companies grow in strength and numbers in a variety of areas, good corporate governance becomes vital. While corporate governance was originally steeped in traditional company laws, it has now broadened to encompass greater areas of concern. It is now no longer enough that corporate governance be limited within one’s own company, but must also take into account how it could affect the public. Companies as corporate citizens must act responsibly, in accordance with the laws and be accountable for their acts or omissions. Corporate accountability is an essential feature of corporate governance, as companies must now be held accountable for their own actions. In this respect, whistleblowing was been shown to be instrumental in enhancing corporate accountability, thus achieving good corporate governance, and acts as a tool to prevent and report any untoward activities. This realisation has now resulted in strong legislative and judicial support for whistleblowing in many countries. These include, but are not limited to, the UK, US and Malaysia. Experiences of countries having good whistleblowing laws have shown that many legal issues must be resolved before whistleblowing laws can be effectively implemented, especially issues of breach of duty of confidentiality, malicious whistleblowing and liability for defamation. Malaysia’s very own whistleblowing law, the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 draws upon such experiences.