Beyond RTI: Towards Open Government

After many years of advocacy by civil society, Sri Lanka is set to adopt a law that guarantees citizens Right to Information (RTI).Nalaka_finalEchelon MagazineBy Nalaka Gunawardene.-March 06, 2015With that, we will at last catch up with nearly 100countries that have introduced such progressivelaws. Better late than never but passing the lawis only a beginning. Institutionalising it requireseffort and funds. Continued vigilance is neededon civil societys part to guard against the processbecoming mired in red tape.

RTI signifies unleashing a new potential. Todraw an analogy from water management, openinga sluice does not by itself mean much unlessthe downstream systems are in place. In bothcases, the recipients need to know how to makethe best use of what comes through.

Journey so far
Why is RTI such a big deal? Its basisis that in democracies, the public haveevery right to know what is being donein their name by those entrusted withgovernance.

RTI is the right to access and obtaininformation from public officials. Thisright serves several purposes: improvepublic participation in policymaking;promote transparency and accountabilityin government; and minimise wastageand corruption of state resources bypublic officials.

RTI and freedom of information areused interchangeably, but there is animportant distinction between the two.According to lawyer Gehan Gunatilleke,who recently wrote a book onthe subject (published by Sri LankaPress Institute, 2014), freedom ofinformation implies a citizens freedomto access and receive public informationon request. In such a situation,the government should not violate thatfreedom by restricting access. RTI goesfurther, and implies that information isan inherent right of the people. Governmentsare duty-bound to provide suchinformation.

The concept of RTI can be tracedback to the principle of public accesswhich emerged in Europe during the18th century. In 1766, Sweden becamethe first country to legislate RTI: it allowedthe public access to governmentdocuments.

The Universal Declaration of HumanRights, adopted by the UnitedNations in 1948, recognised the rightto seek, impart and receive informationas part the fundamental rightto freedom of speech and expression
(Article 19).

RTI does not mean opening up everything.Sensitive information relatedto national security, for example isexcluded. The challenge is to strike ahealthy balance between full transparencyand a few justified exemptions.

Indian experience
In Asia, India was a frontrunner indeveloping RTI laws. The campaignfor RTI started in the 1990s with agrassroots movement driven by socialactivists and rural groups. They sawits clear value to counter the growingmisuse of authority and public fundsby local officials.

State level RTI laws were adoptedin Tamil Nadu (1997), Goa (1997),Rajasthan (2000), Delhi (2001) andMaharashtra (2002). The national lawcame into effect in October 2005 after adecade of agitation.

Under the Indian law, citizens canrequest information from any publicauthority within 30 days. It covers allbranches of government -executive,legislature and judiciary as well as institutionsand statutory bodies set up byan act of national Parliament or a statelegislature. Even non-governmentalorganisations, if they receive significantamounts of government funds, arecovered.

The act required all public authoritiesto appoint a public informationofficer (PIO) to handle RTI requests. Italso mandated computerizing of publicrecords so that certain categories ofinformation are proactively publishedonline, enabling interested citizens tojust look it up.

Since the RTI law was introduced,India has seen an improvement ingovernance, dissemination of informationand involvement of civil society inthe governance process, says Dr RajeshTandon, founder and head of the Societyfor Participatory Research in Asia(PRIA), a voluntary organisation providingsupport to grassroots initiatives.

At the same time, Tandon points outthat some challenges remain at implementationlevel. Certain states in Indiahave been more active in creating aculture of information sharing and opengovernment, he told me in a televisioninterview in mid 2014.

As Indians found out, it isnt easy toshake off centuries of misplaced statesecrecy and mistrust in the public.Old rules and procedures continue toco-exist as new laws and methods areinvented The Official Secrecy Act andRight to Information Act co-exist,just as written precedent and e-governanceco-exist, says Tandon (watchour full interview: https://vimeo.com/118544161).rtiNew challenges
In Sri Lanka, civil society groups andjournalists organisations were at theforefront advocating RTI. Groups likeTransparency International and SriLanka Press Institute (SLPI) have beenlobbying, training and raising awarenesson the societal value of this right.

However, RTI is not only for journalistsor social activists. It is a right ofall citizens living in modern societieswhere their well-being sometimeseven survival depends on knowingcritical information. Ignorance mayhave been bliss once upon a time, butit is not recommended for the 21st century.Reorienting the public institutionsto a new culture of openness and sharingwill be an essential step. Undoingdecades of habits will take effort.

Asanga Welikala, a legal scholarnow with the Edinburgh Law School,said in a tweet that we need a moratoriumof at least two years before RTIlaw comes into force so as to trainofficials and make all governmentprocedures compliant. He also saysthe Information Commission musthave a proper budget for promotionand public awareness of the new Act,rights and procedures. For example,how to ensure citizen informationrequests can be accommodated equallyin both official languages and the linklanguage? As champions of RTI, mediaand civil society must now switch roles.While benefiting from it themselves,they can nurture the newly promisedopenness in every sphere, showingcitizens how best to make use of it.rti2Info Literacy
Public information can exist in manyforms today ranging from minutesof meetings, budget allocation andexpense records, and scientificallygathered information such as censusdata, or trade statistics. These maybe stored on paper, tape or increasingly in digital formats.

In recent years, with digitaltechnologies, the volume of specialiseddata held by governments hasrisen phenomenally. Both the datacustodians and public today needhigher levels of information literacyto navigate through this torrent.

The good news: the web makes iteasier to store and share information.Open Data means that certaindata should be freely available toeveryone to use and republish as theywish, without restrictions from copyright,patents or other mechanismsof control. The open data approachis especially applied to scientific dataand government data. But the debateis far from settled: while there aremany strong arguments for openingup, some are concerned aboutpotential misuses. Guidelines are stillevolving. A key attribute of open datais its usability. Each country needs toadopt information gathering and datastorage standards, so as to minimizeusers facing problems that arise withthe use of different sevices, systems andmeasuring systems.

Some public data custodians in SouthAsia still release vast amounts of datain hard copy (paper-based) form. Forexample, Indias Marine FisherfolkCensus of 2010 had results running intothousands of pages of data tables theywere only released on paper. That madefurther analysis impossible. Undaunted,a fishers collective mobilised sometech-savvy volunteers to create computerisedspreadsheet databases.Like many other elements of goodgovernance, RTIs effectiveness dependson imagination, innovation andpersistence on the part of citizens. Itsbest results will accrue in a society andpolitical culture where evidence andanalysis are trusted. Sri Lanka is notthere yet.Posted byThavam