Ceylon Daily News: Colombo: Wednesday,
September 28, 2016.
"We have
already completed several districts, not at grassroots level, but we are at
least keeping journalists and the civil society sector informed and educated about
this Act. It’s not enough. The government cannot do it alone. This is an Act
that enriches democracy and strengthens the people. Not only the government,
but also the civil society has a role to play. They must take it on. They
should go from village to village, keeping the people educated. Civil societies
are working with us in a public-private partnership type of corporation. The
Minister will initiate the rapid process of implementation just after the
Conference."
As the World
celebrates the ‘Right to Information Day’ today (28), Director General of
Government Information Dr. Ranga Kalansooriya, in an interview with the Daily
News spoke of the importance of the Right to Information Act in strengthening
democracy in Sri Lanka. As a new entrant into ‘Right to Information,’ the
government would commemorate the occasion with a two-day international
conference on the Right to Information Act and media freedom.
Following
are the excerpts:
Q: Can you
tell me about the process of implementing the Right to Information Act (RTI)?
A: This is
the most important and vital challenge we are facing. In fact, we had a meeting
this morning with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe along with the Media
Minister and Deputy Minister. The Prime Minister advised us to fast track the
process of implementation. There would be bi-weekly progress reviews by the
Prime Minister himself. So, there are now two tracks on that. One is the
establishment of the Information Commission, which is a process that is being
overseen by the Constitutional Council in Parliament and as I heard, I think
the motions have already been completed and the Presidential approval is
pending, while that process too has to be completed with the establishment of
infrastructure facilities such as buildings, support staff and so forth.
Q: How could
you say the process is going smoothly so far?
A: Yes. But
while the process is moving smoothly, it is some what challenging. From the
Ministry’s side, we have to identify information officers, establish a mechanism
and train the officers. It’s a whole lot of work. We must also start from the
national level to the grassroots level and according to the Act, we have to
complete it within six months. While three months have already elapsed, we have
to fast track the system and get it implemented as quick as possible, because
the entire political leadership, including the President and the Prime Minister
are committed. We have a very dynamic Minister and Deputy Minister who are
doing their very best to make this a success. I am sure we could achieve some
goals, but we would have to go back to Parliament for some relaxation
concerning the timeframe. It’s a challenging task.
Q: Could you
speak about the bigger problems you are dealing with in implementing the Act?
A: If you
speak on countries such as the UK, especially Scotland, when they drafted the
Bill in 2000, it took five years for its implementation. You’re setting up
another parallel set of governance within this mechanism. It’s not only passing
the Act. That’s quite, I could not say small, but the implementation part of it
is even strenuous than getting it passed. It’s also at least an equally
challenging task.
Q: How are
you training Government Information Officers?
A: If you
were to compare other countries, the intention of this upcoming conference on
the World Right to Information Day, which falls on Wednesday, is to get
acquainted with the experiences of other countries such as India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh. We are inviting Information Commissioners of these countries to
solicit their expertise and learn from their experiences. We wish to understand
their training mechanisms as information officers. What the training modules
are? What are the training mechanisms? We are talking about high numbers, such
as 5,000 to 6,000 information officers at least. You cannot do it within a
month. You have to plan it.
Q: Has
training begun?
A: Not yet.
Now it’s in the process of identifying information officers. Look, we have to
work with this tough bureaucracy. There is a mismatch between the timeframe in
the Act and the reality of the bureaucracy. So, we have to match these two. For
implementing this kind of massive national work plan, you need a corporate
mentality and a corporate working style, which is totally different from
government structures. Any country is the same. You go the U.S. and it’s the
same. The bureaucratic system is totally different from the corporate sector.
But now the craftsmanship of this act has specified ways to adopt a corporate
mentality. You have to have a mix.
Q: Is there a
RTI awareness plan or public relations campaign?
A: Yes,
that’s another thing we are doing. There is no part in establishing the systems
if the people are not aware of it. So, that part we have already initiated. We
have already completed several districts, not at grassroots level, but we are
at least keeping journalists and the civil society sector informed and educated
about this Act. It’s not enough. The government cannot do it alone. This is an
Act that enriches democracy and strengthens the people. Not only the
government, but also the civil society has a role to play. They must take it
on. They should go from village to village, keeping the people educated. Civil
societies are working with us in a public-private partnership type of
corporation. The Minister will initiate the rapid process of implementation
just after the Conference. He would work at getting all of these mechanisms
under one roof , as the Media Ministry alone could not do so. We need other
ministries, such as Public Administration, Local Governance, Provisional
Council Ministries and grassroots level participation. It’s a collective
effort.
Q: Does the
government itself have a plan for getting to the grassroots level, or is it
just going to go through civil society?
A: I think we
would have to join hands with the civil society. Public awareness is not
entirely the responsibility of the government. We could do something to some
extent, but we would need the civil society to help us.
Q: Please
explain the role of the National Media Center. How is it different from other
government bodies?
A: The
National Media Center will be a media think tank. We lack too many think tanks
in Sri Lanka and we do not have any that would deal exclusively with the media.
Zero. We need media watchdogs, which would keep an eye on the media. It’s a
strategic body that looks at the conduct and content of the media and advises
policy-making structures. That’s one thing it does. The second part is that it
would design the voices of the government the way that they have to be
communicated. We have learned some lessons about not getting the message to the
people correctly. It’s a conduit between the public outreach and the
policy-making. Public outreach will definitely be with the Government
Information Department. The National Media Center will strengthen the
government information system. The Government Information Department, which has
been around since 1947, but, we do not have a think tank role here. It is an
engine. It is not a thinking brain. It is a doer. So the National Media Center
will do the thinking part and work with us. These two bodies will supplement
each other.
Q: You
touched on my next question, which is how do you take all the communications
from disparate parts of the government and come out with a single, clear
message?
A: It is
usually incredibly difficult. But fortunately, the two leaders think alike. The
President and Prime Minister, think alike, and they work alike. That was the
reason why they decided to go for five years. So I am, in my position in that
case. In most cases, this position turns into a political position because the
ruling government appoints you. But in my case, two major political parties
have to come to some consensus in appointing me. Even in a non-cohabitated
government system, you find many voices. It is part of democracy. But if you
have a national government with too many political parties, you might hear a
lot of voices. And specifically after ten years of repression, people begin
talking. At present they have freedom, which is natural and they enjoy that
freedom. It’s not that difficult because my Minister is the Spokesman of the
Cabinet as well, so we could draw the line. We work as a team. So it is not
only me who takes decisions on messaging, but it is a team: the Minister, the
Deputy Minister, the Secretary and myself. So it is a feat of teamwork. And
this team has been strengthened by the National Media Center on producing the
message, crafting the message and bringing them to one voice as you said. It’s
a daunting, difficult task. I agree with you. But that has to be done. We have
to understand the practical side of this. It’s natural.
Q: Is the
National Media Center up and running?
A: Yes.
Q: How
important is the RTI to democracy?
A: If you
asked somebody two or three decades ago what was democracy, it was confined to
universal franchise. You elect the government at elections every five years.
And then you have to wait for another five years to practice your democratic
rights. But now, the elements of democracy had been expanded, horizons are
expanded: rule of the law, freedom of expression, right to life, right to
education, right to health. These have become elements of democracy. So is the
right to information. Now it is the element of securing and strengthening
democracy. Without guaranteeing the right to information,
I could not
think of any sought of democracy. That is one reason this government has to
stabilize democracy, by starting with the RTI. With the 19th Amendment, this
government, during its 100-day programme, brought in the right to information
as a fundamental right.
There are
legal provisions ensuring this right through a separate act. This is the
establishment of democracy. I’m sure you have heard about Francis Fukuyama? He
speaks about three elements in strengthening states.
The third
element is democratic accountability. Without democratic accountability, you
are unable to ensure the rule of law and the strength of the State. So this is
the element of democratic accountability. You have to be accountable to the
people.
You cannot
depend totally on the conventional media, because media is agenda-driven. So
why don’t you give direct access to the people for information? It has become a
basic right of the people taday.
Q: How do you
see Sri Lankans using the RTI? Do you see people of all backgrounds and
professions using it?
A: It will
take time. In Bangladesh it took five years.
Q: You mean
five years for the people to start using it?
A: They
slowly picked up. They passed the law in 2009 and they started using it around
2014, 2015. Now they’re slowly picking it up. South Asians are a bit slow in
grasping democratic rights. Indians, they agitated for it. But only India did
it. In other countries, it came from the top. It might take at least one year
for them to realize what is going on. But in this age of IT and smart
technologies, I don’t think it will take four or five years. It will take some
time for people to grasp it and take advantage of it.
Q: Have you
set up guidelines to make sure government officials saving all of their
information? Is there a watchdog agency?
A: In many
countries there are watchdogs. RTI-implementing watchdogs. So we have to have a
monitoring mechanism.
Q: Is there a
watchdog right now?
A: No. We
have to establish systems, while the civil society has to do this as well. We
should not do it, actually. To my mind we should not do it. The civil society
should do the RTI monitoring. India has a very powerful system of RTI
monitoring through civil society organizations. On the other hand, this is the
Act where Commissioners are punished if they do not properly perform their
role. So it’s very important that everything is on track. It’s a crucial Act.
Q: Can you
comment on the progression of media freedom in Sri Lanka? How has this process
been going and how do you see it continuing?
A: Well,
there are two angles to that question. One angle is, yes. The environment has
been relaxed. There is no political or military pressure. People who fled the
country could return. They are coming back. Many of them have returned. There
is no doubt about it. On the other hand, whether we have the necessary capacity
and professionalism in the media to practice this freedom is a question.
Because when a society is affected through the absence of democracy, the media
turns victim. And for many years, the media of this country had been a victim,
while media members are not used to enjoying freedom. So a lot of media critics
say you need reforms in the media sector. So that is why we are talking about
media reforms in this upcoming conference as well. The government has plans to
introduce new laws and regulations and set up media training facilities. The
government has some cohesive plans on reforming the media. But the government
could only create the infrastructure and environment. Using that space professionally,
is the responsibility of the journalists.
Q: Finally,
could you provide a summary of what we could expect at the RTI Confab that
begins on Wednesday?
A: This is to
share the experiences of other countries and for us to learn from their
experiences on both RTI and media reforms. The government is working on several
fronts on those two subjects.
We have to
learn and we also have to get the public involved. So we have opened up the
conference to the public. We have given 100 seats to the public at large. So we
will be recording all these outputs and we would make a publication that would
guide us in our future programmes on RTI and media reforms.
We are
joining hands with academia in this country, journalists and the civil society.
If you look at the panel of speakers, they hail from different walks of life
from Sri Lanka's society. We are trying to bring everyone. Specifically we are
talking about how to build a smart citizen through smart technology. This is a
new challenge in our society. We are bringing three ministries together: the
Media Ministry, the Education Ministry, and the Digital Infrastructure
Industry.
We will hold
discussions and come up with new ideas on how to build smart citizens. So these
are the new paradigms we are talking about. So the range is from the Press
Council Act of 1973 to the Smart Phone age of 2016. The media spectrum spans
for 43 years. It is a huge subject and we are trying to get the maximum out of
it.
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