(May 8): The whistleblowers who exposed the land deal between 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB) and pilgrims fund, Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), should be protected and not used the Official Secrets Act (OSA) against them, Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) said today.

TI-M president Datuk Akhbar Satar said investigations into leaked land deal documents in an anonymous blog recently was an example of how the OSA can be "misused for the wrong reasons".

Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar earlier today said the probe into the leaked documents in a blog called "Benchmark", would be carried under OSA.

The leaked documents led to an admission by TH that it had indeed purchased a plot of land from 1MDB's real estate arm for RM188.5 million at the site of the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) project.

"In this instance, any whistleblower must be protected without the threat of the OSA being used against them," Akhbar said.

"Instead priority should be given to investigate whether any irregularities occurred in the business transactions, if the purchase was made according to standard procedure and if the price paid by TH was reasonable and fair value.”

Akhbar in a statement today also urged TH to disclose the financial information behind the land deal with 1MDB.

"The primary function of the Malaysian Haj pilgrims fund board is to facilitate Muslims’ savings for the pilgrimage to Mecca," he said.

"Thus, such excessive investment spending on the purchase of land and other deals should be made transparent by making the information readily available to the public before the leaks from the social media," he added.

Yesterday, TH admitted to buying a 0.63ha land within TRX from 1MDB for RM188.5 million, a move critics said was to help 1MDB.

TH chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim earlier denied an article by a blog called The Benchmark that the pilgrims’ fund will spend over RM700 million to buy land in TRX from 1MDB.

He later admitted that his earlier denial was in reference to the amount spent on acquiring two plots of land from 1MDB, saying that the pilgrims' fund had only made one investment and "at a lower price". – The Malaysian Insider