A promise of free flow of information

The Penang Freedom of Information Bill is scheduled for a second reading and changes will be made to make information accessible to the public.

GEORGE TOWN: The contentious Penang Freedom of Information Bill is to be revised and there will be a free flow of information to the public.

That’s the promise from the select committee tasked with reviewing the proposed Bill. Its chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said the revised Bill was modeled on several freedom of information legislations around the world.

However, he did not say which countries’ models the Penang FOI Bill had adopted.

“The idea is to make information of public departments accessible to the public,” he told newsmen here today.

The Bill is scheduled to be tabled for second reading when the assembly sits on Oct 24.

Civil society groups have criticised the Bill as an exact carbon copy of Selangor Freedom of Information 2010 and lacked transparency.

They were not happy with Section 2 (2C) that allowed the chief minister to override any attempts to declassify state documents.

They said certain applications to seek information from the state agencies can be turned down for being “troublesome”.

They added that such provisions tantamount to putting a lid on freedom of information and freezing information.

Jagdeep revealed that the seven-man select committee amended 15 sections, proposed nine new sub-articles and deleted 13 sub-articles in the revised Bill.

Jagdeep said among the amendments made was one to strengthen the powers of the state appeals board to make its decision final.

The amendment will restrict anyone from challenging the board decision in a court of law.

Warning from MCA

The board will be formed after the Bill has been passed to allow appeals from anyone whose application to obtain information was turned down by relevant authorities.

“The amendment was necessary to bring finality to the appeal process,” said Jagdeep, who is the Datuk Keramat state assemblyman and Public Accounts Committee chairman.

The first reading of original bill was at the last November Assembly sitting.

Meanwhile MCA warned Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng of risking expulsion by the Yang diPertua Negeri by legislating an unconstitutional FOI Enactment.

MCA state secretary Lau Chiek Tuan advised Lim to seek legal advice from the Attorney-General’s Chambers before tabling the FOI Bill for second reading.

Under the constitutional monarchy system, he said that one could be committing contempt if the constitutional head of state was compelled to consent to an unconstitutional Bill.

Under the Malaysian constitutional law, a Bill passes automatically as a law if the 60-day period for the head of state’s consent lapsed.