RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Right to Information:South Asian Experiences
By Nalaka GunawardeneScience writer & new media researcher
www.nalakagunawardene.com
Talk given at Staff RTI Awareness SeminarParliament of Sri Lanka
16 August 2016
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Right to Information: RTI Right to access and obtain
information from public officials & public authorities with minimum procedure
Recognised as a fundamental right in the Constitution (19th Amendment, April 2015)
RTI Act No 12 of 2016 enables citizens to exercise this right
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI in Sri Lanka: 1994-2016 1994: PA govt pledged freedom of info in
media policy 1996: Committee to advise on reforming
laws affecting media freedom and freedom of expression (headed by R K W Goonesekere) recommended RTI
1998: Colombo Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility emphasized value of RTI
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
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RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Journey started in 1994RTI Act passed on 24 June 2016
Journey is not over. We have a long way to go!
We just passed a key milestone!
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI Act No 12 of 2016: Culmination of a 22-year journey
On 4 August 2016, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya signed RTI Act in Parliament
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Key element of good governance යහපොලනත� මූලි�
ගුණයක්…
Obligation to disclose information on administration
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
What RTI Law does…“Laws that guarantee RTI allow public access to data held by the government. These laws establish a procedure under which requests for government-held information could be made available at minimal or no cost.”- Gehan Gunatilleke in SLPI/UNESCO Guide http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002441/244113E.pdf
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI like a ‘full body scan’ for politicians and officials!
Cartoon Courtesy – Sudhir Tailang, The Asian Age
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
In South Asia…What difference can RTI make?
8 nation states: all under democratically elected govts (as at 2016 Aug)
1.6 billion+ people Fast growing economies
but also widening disparities
Home to world’s highest No of people living in poverty
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI is part of South Asia’s heritage!
http://www.bbc.com/sinhala/sri-lanka-36634031
Nalaka Gunawardene interview with BBC Sinhala, 26 June 2016
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Ashoka Pillars = world’s first RTI King Ashoka (3rd cent. before Christ):
one of India’s greatest emperors He inscribed on rocks all over Bharat his
government’s policies, development programs and his ideas on various social, economic & political issues -- including how religions should co-exist with each other.
This was the world’s first proactive disclosure of info by a ruler = ancient RTI
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Ashoka Pillars = ancient RTI
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Govt sharing info with people:The great Ashokan tradition “Emperor Ashoka insisted that the
inscriptions should be in the local language and not in a courtly language like Sanskrit. And considering the fact that few of his subjects were literate, he ordered officials to read out the edits to people at public gatherings.” - RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak, Coordinator, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), New Delhi
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Modern Era: 250 Years of Freedom of Information/RTI laws 1766 Sweden: His Majesty’s
Gracious Ordinance Relating to Freedom of Writing and of the Press
World’s first Freedom of Information Act: decreed that administrative & judiciary documents, as a rule, were public: citizens had the right to access them.
Concept of Public Access
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Growing recognition of RTI by inter-governmental bodies…
• Article 19 of Universal Decl. of Human Rights, 1948 • Article 19 of International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, 1966• Regional charters of the African Union, Organization of
American States, Council of Europe, European Union
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
SAARC level recognition of RTI 2nd meeting of regional forum of the Ministers
of Social Development of SAARC region, 6 March 2008, agreed “to adopt appropriate legislation conferring the right to information for all citizens from governments and public authorities, to eliminate arbitrariness and corrupt practices and improve governance at the regional, national and local level.”
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=36072
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Among RTI Laws worldwide… Freedom of Information Act, 1966 – United States of America Freedom of Information Act, 1982 - Australia Act on Disclosure of Info by Public Agencies, 1996 - South Korea Act on Access to Info Held by Administrative Organs, 1999 - Japan Promotion of Access to Information act, 2000 - South Africa Freedom of Information Act, 2000 - United Kingdom Freedom of Information Act, 2005 – Germany Federal Act on the Principle of Freedom of Information in Public
Administration (Freedom of Information Act, FIA), 2007- Switzerland Open Government Information Regulations, 2008 - People’s Republic
of China
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
100+ countries have adopted RTI Laws (Sri Lanka is 108th)
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI in SAARC region…
India (at national level): 2005 (but Supreme Court recognised info right as early as 1975)
Nepal: 2007 Bangladesh: 2009 Pakistan: 2013 Maldives: 2014 Bhutan: 2014 Afghanistan: 2015 Sri Lanka: 2016
Sri Lanka as a ‘late comer’ can & must benefit from RTI experiences in other South Asian countries
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Surveying RTI in South Asia:2014 study by Asia Foundation Despite the existence of RTI laws,
levels of public awareness, citizen use of RTI and implementation vary considerably across countries.
Street corner interviews in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan found that only 24% of 263 respondents knew about their country’s RTI law
http://asiafoundation.org/resources/pdfs/CitizensAccesstoInformationinSouthAsia.pdf
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI in modern day India:Inspiration for rest of SAARC India’s Right to Information Act
2005 Been extensively used by citizens to:
access entitlements redress grievances solve local level problems expose corruption and
mismanagement in govt programs
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, India Set up in 1996 to campaign for a law
guaranteeing Right to Information Networked 100+ civil society and
community groups across India Drafted 1st version of Right to Info Act
(together with Press Council of India) Now collaborates with govt in
implementing RTI across India http://righttoinformation.info/
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
“One of the important democratic lessons in this entire struggle is that it’s an ordinary person’s voice that has been made into a law. Because it began with the people’s struggle with the MKSS. But it has led to legislation, it has led to the entire process being spread all over the country and to some extent outside. So it shows you how democracy can function.” – Aruna Roy, former Indian civil servant turned RTI activist
Pioneering Indian RTI activist looks back…
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI used most widely at local level
http://www.ajitkumar.co.in/2015/12/awareness-of-rti.html
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI Mobile services in India: taking RTI to everyone!
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Even children have become RTI activists: some filed 100+ requests!
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI is for ALL citizens:Age is no barrier to use this right!
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
India: combating bribery and corruption using RTI
Kabir campaign on RTI, India
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Enhancing RTI skills of officials and other citizens…
http://rtiocc.cgg.gov.in/home.do
Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India (GoI) launched an 'Online Certificate Course on RTI' in 2012
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
India: RTI still has critics…and needs defending even now
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Political parties don’t want to be covered by RTI law in India!
India’s usually bickering political parties come together in their opposition to being included as a ‘public entity’ under RTI law’s revisions
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI in Nepal 1990 Constitution guaranteed RTI as a
fundamental right to citizens Interim Constitution 2007 also guaranteed
RTI as a fundamental right RTI Act 2007 passed on 18 July National Info Comm set up: June 2008 Regulation on Right to Information ratified
and came to effect on 9 Feb 2009 http://www.ccrinepal.org/rti-in-nepal
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Nepal: RTI covers Political parties! Political parties are also
defined as public bodies. Election Comm. Ila
Sharma : “In a democracy, it is critical for the political parties to make public the details of their financial transactions.”
Himalayan Times, 4 Jan 2016
https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/political-parties-told-to-respect-rti-laws/
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI in Bangladesh In 2008, caretaker govt installed during state
of emergency passed the RTI Ordinance that civil society had the opportunity to co-shape.
2008 Ordinance was later ratified by an elected government and the RTI Act came into force on 1 July 2009
fight against corruption a major factor in Bangladesh’s adopting of RTI law
http://www.moi.gov.bd/RTI/RTI_English.pdf
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Citizens use RTI requests to monitor public works
Poster by Transparency International Bangladesh
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI laws in Nepal (2007) and Bangladesh (2009) Much has been done to train public
officials and reorient govt systems But RTI is a work in progress: “…the effectiveness of the laws in
both countries has been diminished by poor implementation and limited awareness and use of the laws by citizens.” – Asia Foundation’s 2014 study on RTI in South Asia
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI in Pakistan RTI movement emerged in late 1980s and
1990s out of growing pubic concerns about rampant corruption
Freedom of Information Ordinance in 2002: considered to be a weak law
2 provinces now have stronger laws: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa RTI Act (2013) Punjab Transparency & RTI Ordinance (2013)
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Imran Khan as RTI champion
Imran Khan founded and heads Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party which promotes RTI for good governance. PTI is the largest party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where it leads a coalition government. This province has the best provincial RTI law in Pakistan.
,
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI Maldives 2008 new constitution recognized
freedom of information as a fundamental right.
Parliament unanimously approved Access to Information law in Dec 2013
President Abdulla Yameen ratified Jan 2014
Applies to all state-funded institutions
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI in SAARC: Learn from each other!“Countries in South Asia have much to learn from each other’s experiences in implementing the right to information. At a country level, governments need to more effectively demonstrate their commitment to open government by strengthening both the demand and supply side... At a regional level, institutions such as SAARC can play a lead role in facilitating dialogue and the sharing of knowledge and best practices between RTI experts, practitioners and govt officials within the region.”
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
RTI in Sri Lanka: Challenges Govt has to change how it
manages & shares info Citizens have to become
more info literate: learn how to ask right questions + use data as evidence
Media and civil society can be guides to society on RTI
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Public institutions must change attitude about public info!
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
We need lawyers, teachers, journalists, artistes, even comedians to spread RTI…
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
We need media and civil society vigilance… To ensure RTI is properly
implemented To guard against it being
subverted by some officials To prevent abuses of RTI (e.g.
to breach privacy or commercial secrets)
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
FOI/RTI battle never ends…“If you ask me if we are better
off now than before we passed it, I would definitely say yes. If you ask me are we where we should be on open government, I would say, not by a long shot. ...The battle never ends!” - Congressman John Moss (Dem., Ca)., champion of US Freedom of Info Act 1966
John E Moss(1915-1997)
RTI: Ushering a New Era of Open Government
Let’s get out of here – together!
http://nalakagunawardene.comTwitter: @NalakaG
All images have been used in good faith for public education purposes.Views expressed are personal.