We read with concern the statement by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng as reported in the media on 13 May, regarding the disclosure of information allegedly by a civil servant that he said included minutes of the state executive councillors' meeting that were confidential.

We realise that years of Barisan Nasional (BN) rule has created a government machinery built on secrecy and favourtism. It is unfortunate that many civil servants are unable to understand their roles as servants of the public and not the BN and we look forward to the states under the Pakatan Rakyat (PKR) to set a better standard in terms of transparency and accountability.

The only way to reverse the culture of secrecy is to reject the Official Secrets Act as a valid tool for good governance. Here, the PKR government should have made it a priority to ensure that all information pertaining to public decision making are declassified and a right to information law put in place.
We urge the Chief Minister not to take punitive actions against the staff involved but to engage civil servants to appreciate the importance of an open government. The crux of a right to information law is that governments must be accountable for the decisions made and where public interest is of utmost importance, there is no place for secrecy.

We commend the Selangor government for making the commitment to enacting a right to information law, indeed a milestone for Malaysians and we look forward to the Penang government to follow suit.


Gayathry Venkiteswaran is Executive Director at Centre for Independent Journalism.