Sri Lanka Guardian: Colombo: Monday,
June 27, 2016.
On June 24,
2016, Parliament unanimously adopted the Right to Information (RTI) law.
This marks
the culmination of over two decades of advocacy by civil society groups and
journalists. It also fulfills a key promise of the yahapalana government.
Passing the
law was no easy task, as it went through a year of drafting, judicial review by
the Supreme Court, and considerable political scrutiny. The government and
other political parties in Parliament who rarely agree on anything came
together to pass the law without a vote.
However, our
challenges are far from over. Now begins the daunting task of implementing the
new law. RTI calls for a complete reorientation of government in how it handles
information and promotes openness. This is unfamiliar ground.
As one
skeptical citizen, Harindra Dassanayake (@HarindraBD) said on Twitter within
hours of the law being passed: “Lanka has many good laws, with hopeless or zero
impact. Hope RTI [would] be different. It’s time to act and not celebrate.”
Indeed, there
is much to do. The law’s adoption is only a fresh start. Proper implementation
needs political will, administrative support and sufficient public funds.
We would also
need on-going monitoring by civil society groups and the media to guard against
the whole process becoming mired in too much red tape.
Late comers,
quick learners?
With the new
law, Sri Lanka becomes the 108th country to have introduced RTI laws, also
known as freedom of information laws.
That leaves
only Bhutan in South Asia without a national RTI law, according to Venkatesh
Nayak, Programme Coordinator with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
(CHRI) in New Delhi.
Nayak, a
noted RTI expert and activist, says that countries without RTI laws are
becoming a smaller and smaller minority on the planet.
He adds: “But
for the long drawn ethnic conflict, Sri Lanka would have been the second
country in South Asia to enact a national RTI law if efforts made in 2003-4 had
reached fruition.”
In the event,
Sri Lanka took the belated first step in April 2015, when the 19th Amendment to
the Constitution made the right to information a fundamental right. The RTI Act
puts in place the administrative arrangement to enable citizens to exercise
that right.
Sri Lanka is
certainly a late comer to the global RTI community, but we can exploit this to
our advantage. Our neighbours and other countries have so much experience in
this respect that can help us in implementation.
For example,
RTI has emerged as a powerful tool in the hands of Indian citizens since the
national law came into effect in 2005. So much so, it has now become a verb (as
in “We will RTI this information” when confronted with a problem).
Across India,
young schoolchildren and grandmothers with no formal education are using RTI
requests to solve local level problems from overdue scholarship payments to
restoring suspended rural bus services.
In
Bangladesh, which adopted its RTI law in 2009, citizens and NGOs are creatively
using public information to combat poverty and counter corruption.
RTI needs
imagination
What
transformative impact can the RTI law have on Lankan society, politics and
governance? The answer is in everybody’s hands.
Unlike most
other laws, RTI is one for citizens to seize and use. That, in turn, requires a
commitment to the public interest, plus plenty of imagination and tenacity.
When the new
Act comes into effect six months from now, any citizen of any age should be
able to seek and receive information held with a public authority at central,
provincial or local levels.
The law
covers all organs of the State Parliament, Executive (President and Cabinet)
and the Judiciary. This includes the police and public sector corporations,
local government bodies, as well as private entities carrying out public
functions or providing public services under contract or license from local
authorities (to the extent such work is concerned).
Problem
solving
To be sure,
the law has some exemptions when the right of access to information may be
denied on legitimate grounds such as protecting the privacy of individuals,
safeguarding national security and preventing the premature release of vital
economic data (e.g. exchange rates, regulation of banking and taxation). These
are common to RTI laws the world over.
Some are not
happy with the extent of exemptions. But in my view, we should focus on so much
information that now becomes our right to ask for and receive within 21 days
or less.
On the part
of public authorities, they will no longer be allowed to release information as
and when they wish. RTI law defines how it must be done and failure to do so
has consequences for public officials.
Citizens, on
their part, must find sufficient purpose and focus in information they can
demand and receive. RTI is not a mere political slogan, but a practical tool
for solving problems.
For example,
how does our local body spend our tax money? On what basis are Samurdhi
beneficiaries selected? Or how are government jobs given to some and not
others?
RTI will
prise open the hitherto closely guarded ‘reservoirs’ of information.
A five member
RTI Commission appointed by the President on the recommendations of the
Constitutional Council will monitor and process and investigate citizen’s
complaints and appeals. The Commission’s decisions can also be challenged
before the Court of Appeal.
All this
concerns the ‘supply side’ of public information, which is surely going to be
enhanced. But what about the demand side? Are we ready for active citizenship
armed with more information?
To draw an
analogy from water management, opening the sluice gates of a water reservoir
can benefit only if the downstream systems are in place and the users are
ready. With both water and information, recipients need to know how to make the
best use of what comes through.
Bigger
picture
In the coming
weeks and months, much needs to be done to ensure RTI readiness among public
officials, and RTI awareness among the public.
As we get
busy with the nitty-gritty operational details, let us not lose sight of the
bigger picture. RTI signifies unleashing a new potential, and a major change in
the status quo.
First, we
must shake off a historical legacy of governments not being open or accountable
to citizens. For over 2,000 years of monarchy, over 400 years of colonial rule
and 67 years of self-rule since independence, all our governments have
restricted public information even mundane things unrelated to any security
or sensitive issues.
The ‘default
setting’ in most government agencies is to deny and restrict information. To
change this, both public servants and citizens will need a paradigm shift in
their minds.
As
long-standing champions of RTI, Lankan media and civil society must now switch
roles. While benefiting from RTI themselves, they can nurture the newly
promised openness in every sphere of public life. They can show, inspire and
equip other citizens how best to make use of it.
However, RTI
is not just a piece of law or changing how governments share public
information. At its most basic, RTI is a collective state of mind. With its
adoption, our society can start moving along a more open, informed and
inquisitive pathway.
Science
writer and columnist Nalaka Gunawardene has long chronicled the rise of Sri
Lanka’s information society. He tweets at @NalakaG