Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng admitted today the Freedom of Information bill that his government tabled at the State Assembly last November had weaknesses but that these could be rectified.

"We tabled the same Act that was passed by the Selangor State Assembly in order to get round the objections to it by the state legal adviser," said Lim when speaking to the press after opening the launch of the 2nd Penang International Halal Exposition.

NONE Apparently, Penang state legal adviser Faiza Zulkifli had advised the state government against tabling the FOI bill because it was ultra vires the Federal Constitution.

"She advised that the bill we planned to table was unconstitutional because information is a federal jurisdiction," said Lim.

"But when the Selangor State Assembly passed an FOI bill, we decided we could go ahead and at least table the same bill because if Selangor's bill is not unconstitutional, the same cannot be held to be unconstitutional in Penang," explained Lim.

"All we have done was to table the first reading of the same Selangor bill and then we referred it to a select committee where we have invited the public to give feedback," continued Lim.

"From the feedback, we will rectify any weaknesses or defects in the bill," he said.

A work in progress

The CM said the bill was a work in progress and the decision to table what was in essence a replication of the FOI bill passed by the Selangor legislature was to circumvent the objections of the Penang state legal adviser.

Guan Eng said the criticisms hurled at the Penang bill by the MCA and Gerakan were motivate by insincerity because "if the two parties are serious, why don't they try getting an ideal bill through the Federal Parliament?"

"The two parties cannot get something done on their own but they criticise us when we do something they have not done in 54 years," he remarked.