Monday, March 29, 2010
Sanjida Sobhan and Shazzad Khan
TODAY is March 29, 2010 -- on this day last year the first session of the Bangladesh 9th Parliament adopted the Right to Information Bill. The precondition of basic democracy in a country is to ensure participation of the people in its development process. One of the core determinants of participatory democracy is that the government proactively recognises its people's right to information and takes measures to implement this right.
The preamble of Right to Information Act 2009 says that "all powers in the republic belong to the people, and to ensure the empowerment of the people it is imperative to implement Right to Information Act." This progressive act also proclaims that "the right to information shall ensure that transparency and accountability in all public, autonomous and statutory organisations and in private organisations run on government or foreign funding shall increase, corruption shall decrease and good governance shall be established."
By adopting the Right to Information Act, the present government has demonstrated its commitment towards transparency and accountability in public functions. The act will pave the way for people to be aware of their entitlements and to enjoy their entitled opportunities and services to be provided by the institutions concerned. The uniqueness of this act is that it is binding on everybody equally.
Article 2 of the act defines the bodies, which are responsible for providing information as "authorities." These authorities include institutions that are directly or indirectly financed by the government and also the institutions, which receive foreign donations. Under this act, both government and non-government institutions are accountable to disclose and provide information of their activities and services.
The RTI Act 2009 has been influenced by other similar acts of different countries, especially India. The Information Disclosure Law 2000 of South Africa has played a commendable role in conceiving right to information act of many countries. As per this law, anyone can have access to any document of any private institution in South Africa.
As per the Right to Information Act of Bangladesh, common people have been given absolute authority to enquire about the welfare activities promised or committed by the non-government and private institutions. Moreover, if required, the government can also ask for information from these institutions. Very recently, the honourable law minister requested people to provide information to the tribunal formed for the trial of war criminals of 1971.
At present, citizens of 88 developed and developing countries enjoy the legal frameworks for free flow of information. In most of these countries the government and the people have successfully implemented the right to information law to strengthen their democratic system by ensuring transparency and accountability.
If the Right to Information Act is properly implemented, people will easily come to know about the opportunities and services which the government is accountable to provide to the people and, in turn, the people can utilise those for participating in the governance of the country and bringing about positive changes in their lives.
We know that a big portion of our budget is allocated for social safety-net programs targeting the poor. However, if they are not aware of these programs, it will not be possible for them to benefit from these and government poverty reduction programs will remain unutilised. On the other hand, if the government empowers poor people by providing required information, it can help meet the development targets.
Free flow of information can ensure proper and transparent distribution of old-age allowance, widow allowance, VGD, VGF, etc among those who really need them. If people are deprived of these services, they can seek information under the RTI Act and enjoy their entitled opportunities and services.
In this manner, RTI can ensure the rights of the marginalised population, like women, children, disabled people and the poor. A day labourer can learn whether his contractor is paying him/her fair wages as per contract. A small business firm can seek redress if the tender of an influential person is entertained instead of his/her tender with competitive quotation.
If there is free flow of information, the residents of any locality can examine the quality of an under-construction road in terms of its proposed design and materials as mentioned in the contract paper. If the government has information of the total number of migrant workers working abroad and the number of migrant workers going abroad, then it can address many problems of the migrant workers and their families.
All the sections of the RTI Act of Bangladesh took effect from July 1, 2009. Earlier, in 2008, the RTI ordinance was passed leaving aside three sections. These three sections -- encompassing the provisions of request for information, appeal against the refusal of providing information and lodging complaints against information authority -- also took effect from July 1, 2009.
In both developed and developing countries having RTI acts, all the sections were not brought into force at a time. This was because they needed preparatory time to finalise the contents of the information to be provided and the system and process of providing information. Once these had been done, the full set of the act was put into effect. In India, the RTI Act was adopted in May 2005, but was fully enacted in October 2005. Similarly, in South Africa the act was adopted in February 2000, but enacted in March 2001.
In Bangladesh, a 3-member Information Commission was formed just after the RTI Act was passed in parliament. While developing a draft information act in Bangladesh, involved civil society members consulted the Right to Information Act 2005 India, considering its wide usage and implementation strategies. In India, the finalisation of rules for RTI was done within 120 days of adoption of the act.
The preparation of our RTI rules is at the final stage. Meanwhile, the information commission has already organised introductory meetings on RTI at divisional and district levels. The information ministry has also organised introductory meetings with the information officers. Preparation of enlisting the point-persons responsible for providing information on behalf of different institutions and finalisation of a database of these point-persons is still underway. It is expected that this database will be published once it is completed.
So far the information providing organisations or institutions and the general population are not well aware of the RTI Act and its application. In this regard, along with the government, the non-government organisations should come forward in awareness-building activities on RTI. The non-government organisations, which come under the jurisdiction of the RTI Act, should also on their own accord take up steps to disclose the names of the point-persons responsible for providing information.
It is learnt that in spite of the High Court order concerning the disclosure of seven types of information, (academic qualification, criminal suit, occupation, source of income, personal property, debt and bank loan) of the candidates taking part in the Union Parishad elections, the Election Commission is seriously considering reforming the rules of Union Parishad elections. If provisions are not in place to disclose the information concerning the candidates of Union Parishad elections, the voters will not be able to apply their rights in selecting the appropriate candidates.
This year, on February 6, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a speech to the nation to commemorate the first anniversary of her government's assumption to power, said: "We want to ensure free thinking, freedom of expression and free flow of information. To uphold freedom of expression the cabinet has already approved the proposal for amending Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) 1898. On the basis of RTI 2009 the rules for RTI have already been enacted."
Inspired by the speech of the prime minister, all relevant institutions should take up measures to implement RTI and make their efforts open to people. Otherwise, the spirit that RTI is the means for empowerment, good governance and protecting human rights will be lost gradually.
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