KUALA LUMPUR: Economic minister Rafizi Ramli has reminded the opposition to only expose government misdeeds if it is done in the interest of the public and not politically driven.

"I was in their shoes before, so, when I decided to go public with any scandal, it is usually (with) the intention of saving the public's money, more than anything else, As best as possible, work with publicly available information.

"There was only one time I used an OSA (Official Secrets Act 1972) document for 1MDB, and because of the urgency at that time...and I did all that (so) I could get a response.

"If the opposition (intends to) expose the government's misdeeds, they have to consider whether or not they are willing to take the risk. I wouldn't be too worried because I doubt that any politician would want to risk themselves going to prison like I did," he told the media after officiating at the launch of the Economic Consensus 2023 here today.

Rafizi was asked to comment on Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin's statement that he (Hamzah) had files in his possession which could implicate government leaders in wrongdoings (during his time as Home Minister), but was still thinking about whether to use them or not.

Rafizi added that based on his personal experience, if there had been a major scandal involving any party, information and documents on it would have been out by now.

"Most probably the media could have gotten it. We live in that era where you can't really lead on things like these, so I do not see (them) beyond mere rhetorics," he said.

-- BERNAMA