Suara Rakyat Malaysia’s Penang Branch (Suaram Penang) commends the Penang state government in responding to public opinion on upgrading the Penang municipal council to city council status.

This has been done via the state government’s official website and via the Pulau Pinang Municipal Council and its counters, and this will help to promote people’s participation and the democratic process.

However, Suaram Penang would like to remind the Penang government that it is important that people have the right information on which to make any decision. Making the relevant information available is crucial and is a necessary condition for any other feedback mechanism, including public opinion surveys.

Therefore, we urge the government to pass the Freedom Of Information Act (FOI) to ensure that the people have access to relevant and important information.

Once done, the state government should organise public forums and distribute flyers to inform the public on how they can get more information, especially from state government agencies. This step is one part of making the principles of Competency, Accountability and Transparency (CAT) real.

The actions of the Pakatan Rakyat component parties in the run-up to the last election were promising. They pressured the Barisan Nasional and demanded transparency of information. They released any information that they had obtained to the public.

And they organised talks, seminars and distribution of flyers and newsheets to the public to help inform the people when making their decisions for the general election.

However, after the Pakatan Rakyat component parties came to power in Penang, there seems to be a decrease in such initiatives.

We remind the Penang government of their commitment to pass a Freedom Of Information Act and also to make it compulsory that all members of the government publicly declare their assets and are legally prohibited from accumulating extraordinary wealth and living beyond their official means (1993 Dapsy Kulai Declaration of Anti-Corruption).

We look forward to the appropriate action.

The writer is Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), Penang branch coordinator.