Although the Freedom of Information enactment select committee had met twice, the Barisan Nasional committee members never put in an appearance.

nik nazmi nik ahmad book launch 210310 03 A PKR committee member, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, ( left ) said that it is bewildering that they opposed the bill so strongly in the Selangor state assembly and yet did not bother to attend the meetings.

"It is not just the FOI enactment which is a milestone, but also the formation of a select committee to study the law. I regret that they are not here because they have been making a lot of noise about it back in the dewan," said the Seri Setia assemblyperson.

"Now they can talk to the experts about what they are unsure of in the law, and to also bring in their own experts to try to convince us otherwise, but they are not even doing it," he said at a press conference after the select committee's "public feedback session" with several NGOs.

The BN committee members are Karim Mansor (assemblyperson for Tanjung Sepat) and Abdul Shukor Idrus (Kuang).

The committee had also met once earlier to discuss the legislation among themselves.

Feedback session opened to media

Committee chairperson Saari Sungip, a PAS assemblyperson for Hulu Kelang, also revealed that the public feedback session held in the state secretariat building this morning was meant to be a closed-door meeting.

However, state assembly speaker Teng Chang Khim had saw nothing wrong in opening up the session to the media and advised them to do so.

"So we want to conduct ourselves in the spirit of the FOI itself," he said.

NONE The public feedback session is the first phase of the select committee's study. They would be holding "as many sessions as they can" with other NGOs, residents associations,academicians and legal experts.

Saari also said that they may be holding town hall sessions and seminars to further gauge public opinion on the bill.

Once the first phase is over- expected to be by the year end - they

would start work on the second phase, which is to redraft the bill for the third hearing.

The state assembly is expected to sit again in March next year.