Asia-Pacific, Headlines, Human Rights, Press Freedom

MALAYSIA: Freedom of Information Still Under Gov’t Prerogative

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 2005 (IPS) - In a society where even the number of chairs and tables in a ministry is classified as official secrets, a U.S.-style Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) might seem to be the best way to force Malaysia’s government to share information with the public.

Such a law, proponents say, will defeat corruption, prejudice and ignorance and promote transparency and good governance.

On World Press Freedom Day that fell on May 3, Parliamentary Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang announced that his office would convene a conference next month inviting all MPs, political parties, mass media and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to formulate a concerted, nationwide campaign to demand for a Freedom of Information Act.

Proponents of the move say a series of recent setbacks suffered by civil society shows the importance of such a legislation to promote accountability, free speech and democracy.

Case One: A senior environment officer who investigated official corruption is found dead under mysterious circumstances. In an official response, the Department of Environment orders all its top officers who have access to information to take a secrecy oath not to make public what they know.

Case Two: Under public pressure, the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi sets up a Royal Commission to revamp the corrupt police force. The commission hands over a 433-page report with 117 recommendations. The government, however, keeps mum despite mounting demands for the report to be made public.

Case Three: Water supply is being privatised nationally but the people know little about the company, methods or proposed new rates. The government refuses to reveal numerous studies on the water industry, commissioned with public funds, even to backbenchers.

Case Four: A huge national health insurance scheme is due to take off next year that will impact on the lives of every citizen but to date everybody is kept in the dark – doctors, backbenchers and the public.

”The right to information holds within it the right to seek information as well as the duty to give information, to create, store, organise and make it easily available, and to withhold it only in the public interest,” opposition leader Lim told IPS. Lim, who is also chairman of the Democratic Action Party, is the chief convener of the conference.

”The right to information lays the foundation upon which to build good governance, transparency, accountability and participation, and to eliminate corruption,” he said, adding that countries where people have access to information are invariably less corrupt.

Of the 10 countries with a score higher than nine, which are those with very low levels of perceived corruption, in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index, nine have enacted legislation allowing public access to official files. None of the 10 countries at the bottom of the index have such legislations.

”As chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), Malaysia should be setting the example of leadership by introducing liberal access to information legislation with full participation by civil society to underline that the right to access to information is central to good governance and development,” said Lim.

Civil rights campaigners are the first to admit that the demand will be met with stiff resistance from the Abdullah government.

”Information seems to be the favoured tool (by the government) to manipulate, dominate and control,” said Tian Chua, head of the Information Department of the opposition National Justice Party.

”The government has always cloaked all its action in secrecy and a culture of openness and accountability is far away,” Tian told IPS. “It is an uphill task to get FOIA going in this country but we are very supportive of the move.”

The euphoria that greeted Abdullah’s victory in the 2004 elections and the high hopes that he would make government institutions more accountable, remove press controls and repeal restrictive laws have all but evaporated.

The Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontier ranks Malaysia 122 out of 167 in its Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2004, behind Indonesia.

The U.S.-based Freedom House that also ranks a country’s press freedom placed Malaysia at 152 out of 194 countries, lower than Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and even Cambodia and Afghanistan.

”The Malaysian press works under severe political pressure and faces widespread surveillance and harassment from the authorities,” said Wan Azizah, president of the National Justice Party. ”This must end if Malaysia is ever to take the first step in becoming a transparent and accountable society.”

”Press freedom is part and parcel of economic recovery and existence…without it any attempts at reforms are doomed to fail,” Wan pointed out. ”It is time for the prime minister to pledge his unequivocal support in promoting the free flow of information and the notion of press freedom. For a start, we call upon the government to abolish the Printing Presses and Publications Act.”

As far back as 1999 journalists gave Abdullah a memorandum demanding the repeal of the Printing Presses and Publications Act and other repressive anti-media laws and urged the government to enact a Freedom of Information Act. But since then, there has been little by way of easing of controls – a situation made worse by the subservient government-controlled media.

Journalists, however, are not giving up. Besides wearing yellow-coloured ribbons, they have an online petition for an FOIA going at www.onlinepetition.com/foimsia/petition.html

The petition calls on the government to pass a comprehensive freedom of information law.

Responding to mounting criticism, Premier Abdullah told a group of Harvard-educated bankers recently that he remains committed to reform.

”I am committed to realising the promises made by the government before the general election last March,” he said. ”Those were solemn promises…not made in the heat of electioneering but rather after careful thought about what needed to be done for the country.”

”I am not only a man of intentions, I am also a man of deeds,” he said. ”I am not one for display or fanfare or harsh words, so perhaps I don’t give away many signs, but that is an issue of style, not substance.”