Freedom of info bill hangs in balance

Freedom of info bill hangs in balance

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Observers criticized the government on Wednesday for what they
see as its lack of commitment to transparency, as evidenced by
its failure to respond to a House-drafted freedom of information
bill.

"The government apparently prefers to keep information related
to the public interest secret," Agus Sudibyo, a researcher with
the Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information (ISAI),
told a discussion.

The House of Representative drafted a freedom of information
bill in August 2004 and submitted it to the executive. However,
no response has been forthcoming to date.

Agus said that increasing access to information would benefit
not only the public, but also the government, whose branches
would be able to access information possessed by other branches
and thereby, hopefully, improve coordination and teamwork.

The recent reports on childhood malnutrition, Agus said,
provided a good example of a failure to share information as
between government institutions.

"The National Development Planning Board should have been
given direct access to Ministry of Health data on poor nutrition
and malnourishment in order to enable the government to take
action to prevent the situation from escalating into a crisis,"
he said.

To promote transparency, the state needed to enact legislation
to ensure and guarantee public access to information, Agus said.

Instead of discussing the proposed freedom of information bill
with the House, however, the government has instead been
promoting its own official secrets bill, which critics fear will
make public access to information even more difficult.

Another panelist, Djoko Susilo, a member of House Commission
I, said a House plenary session on July 8 was expected to pen in
the freedom of information bill for deliberation during the next
session of House.

"But it all depends on whether the head of the state will send
a government delegate to take part in the deliberations," Djoko
said.

Djoko said a prolonged delay in the deliberation of the bill
would spark fear among the general public of a return
authoritarianism. (004)