WHISTLEBLOWERS who risked their lives to expose misappropriation of public funds in Malaysia should be lauded, said Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown.

Ross Boyert, who helped expose former Sarawak chief minister Taib Mahmud family’s real estate empire, and 1MDB whistleblower Xavier Justo were among those brave ones, she said in an interview with The Star today.

“Journos these days tend to forget that you are only as good as your sources. Ross gave me info he was privy to. That was a brave thing for him to do.

“He was being heavily bullied by private detectives who were following him. He and his wife were suffering a lot of that and still he gave a lot of documentation that helped pull together an info (file) on corruption issues in Sarawak,” she said.

Boyert worked for a US property company owned by Taib’s family. He committed suicide in 2010.

On 1MDB, she said her attention was caught when the opposition began raising questions about the state investor.

“I started asking questions that were not satisfactory answered and all I got were legal letters so I kept pursuing it. It took me over a year before I made my first big break on 1MDB which was the PetroSaudi deal.”

Justo, a former director at PetroSaudi International, was arrested in Thailand in July 2015 for allegedly blackmailing his former employer and released in December 2016.

He filed a complaint in March this year, claiming he had confessed under duress in Thailand. Rewcastle-Brown recalled that his wife Laura was at a loss when she met her.

“Her hubby had spent 18 months in jail and shortly after he was arrested she got in touch with me. I went to see her. She was a distressed young lady trying to work out what to do.”

“My instinct was that we have to go screaming in front of telly cameras that her hubby was being jailed. She was ready to do that and I thought it was important to bring out a rebuttal of some of the awful things that was being written about Xavier after he was jailed.”

“I could tell what happened, that they were threatening this couple, (because ) she went silent on me for a while.”

Rewcastle-Brown also mentioned her colleagues at Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak.

“I have worked with many brave people. Those who worked on the radio were heroes. My DJ Peter John Jaban has gone back and he is jolly well standing up for what’s right and that is brave.”

“Every one who does that knows something will happen to them, and that has got to stop,” she said. – May 20, 2018.