'Official Secrets Act does not allow for good governance'
Published on: Saturday, December 07, 2019
By: David Thien
PUTRAJAYA: Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Journalism Wathshlah Naidu (pic) emphasised the importance of transparency and accountability in good governance at the National Stakeholders Consultation on the Right to Information Legislation event.The event was an initiative to help draft a Freedom of Information Act as part of the PH government’s commitment to promote good governance in public administration.
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It was agreed that some government briefing notes in the past singled out “investigative journalists”, “the opposition” and “members of the public with interests” as groups of people which need to be denied government-held information.
“As a result, getting any information from the civil service is almost always futile, unless already sanitised as a class of pre-approved publicly accessible information.
“Laws like the Official Secrets Act (OSA) had been abused and misused against public interest. Any official document is liable to be classified as an official secret, and not open to judicial review.
“Its powers are too sweeping and broad: allows Ministers, Chief Ministers or an appointed public officer to designate any other official document as ‘top secret’, ‘secret’, ‘confidential’ or ‘restricted’ and criminalises deliberate disclosure and receipt of them, even unintentionally.
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“The Official Secrets Act’s 1986 amendments ( when Tun Mahathir was Prime Minister) to add a provision of mandatory prison sentence had a sobering effect on outspoken media practitioners and journalists who wanted to speak truth to power in public interests.
“The OSA breeds fear and distrust between civil servants and the wider public through the classification of all official documents through a circular document called ‘Arahan Keselamatan’.
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“Publicly available briefing notes on these documents imply that confidential documents are those which contain information that will be embarrassing to the government.”
Participants appreciated that one of the earliest significant milestones of the PH government was to declassify the Auditor General’s 1MDB Report, which was previously sealed under the OSA. The report was not included in the Public Accounts Committee Report on 1MDB because of the OSA.
Some commented that with a new Federal government in place, new secrets in the public interest have been discovered, which should have been public in the first place if there is reasonable press freedom like a RM9.4 billion gas pipeline deal, partly involving Sabah, classified as a red file and a study by Protect and Save the Children on sexual abuse cases was classified under the OSA.
“May 9, 2018 was a historic day for Malaysia as Malaysians collectively voted against the incumbent Barisan Nasional government. With the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) government who run on an anti-corruption and good governance ticket, there is now greater space for significant reform in curbing corruption and empowering citizens democratically.”
“Among its electoral promises, PH government said that they would enact a freedom of information law, especially under the rubric of the Open Government Partnership framework.
“Concomitantly, the PH manifesto also promises the review of oppressive laws like the Official Secrets Act.”
To the participants, it is clear that Malaysia needs a freedom of information law.
“However, the issue is not just when will we get the law, but how effective the law is set up in the first place.”
It was resolved that: “Without strong political will to change political culture of bureaucracy, civil servants will resist viewing citizens as partners of governance in the spirit of transparency and accountability.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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