The Penang government today opened a counter at Level 3 of Komtar in George Town to deal with queries related to the state’s Freedom of Information Enactment (FOI).

As such, Gerakan should not be "panicky" over the FOI, as it is up and running now, Deputy Chief Minister P Ramasamy told Malaysiakini .

"It is not as if Gerakan provided access to information or freedom of information when it governed Penang for 18 years prior to 2008," Ramasamy, whose office is in charge of the implementation of the enactment, he said mockingly.

"It is not as if the information they are asking is a matter of life and death. Don't panic, we have not gone back on our promise to implement FOI in Penang," he added.

Ramasamy ( right ) said this in response Gerakan national legal and human rights bureau chief Baljit Singh, who said Penang has "frozen" instead of freeing information despite publicising the FOI prior to the 13th general election in May 2013.

Baljit said Gerakan was eager to get its hands on several documents related to the undersea bed tunnel project to link the island to Butterworth.

In the same breath, Aliran treasurer Anil Netto said activists were hoping to use the FOI to seek information on several controversial development projects on the island.

Government officers no longer in the dark

A check by Malaysiakini today showed that the government officers were no longer in the dark about the FOI.

On Jan 2 and 5, Malaysiakini tried to get a copy of the deal signed between the Penang Municipal Council and a company for a bike sharing system in George Town, but the council officers knew nothing about the application procedures.

Today, two officers from the state secretariat were present at Komtar, saying they were ready to explain the FOI procedures to members of the public.

Officer Shahrul Nizam said the counter would be open for a week, after which, members of the public would have to go to the relevant departments to make their queries.

"The names and contact numbers of the information officers in each department are already up on the website," Shahrul told Malaysiakini , when met at the counter today.

"The gazetted enactment and the application guidelines are in the process of being uploaded on the website," he said.

It is learnt that the application fee to obtain information for the current year is RM50, and RM100 for previous years.

Shahrul noted that there would be several exemptions to the FOI that applicants should be aware of, according to Section 11 of the enactment.

These include documents that come under the Officials Secrets Act and those under the jurisdiction of the federal government that are also not accessible to the state.

The FOI Enactment was passed by the Penang legislative assembly in November 2011 and gazetted in February 2012.