The Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) has told Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman Said to keep up with the times in the 21st century and not stay in the dark ages, arguing that freedom of information not secrecy, is the global trend of the times.

"In contrast to Azalina’s claims, there has been a visible wave of transparency reforms throughout the globe, in both, established democracies as well as countries committed to democratic consolidation," its founding director Cynthia Gabriel said in a statement today.

This was in response to Azalina's claims yesterday that the proposal to amend the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA) is an attempt to keep up with the times .

The minister had said that the review of the law was in line with current developments in the spread of information in the borderless world and to deal with the frequent leak of government's classified information.

In contrast, Cynthia argued that the current global trend is that the prevalence of internet has crippled governments’ ability to hide information from the public and pressured governments to transparently engage with and provide information to the public as means of enhancing accountability.

The NGO noted that in Europe, the UK, Italy, Slovakia, Moldavia, Denmark have all taken steps to introduce transparency in governance and remove the gag of secrecy, similarly with the US where the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act guarantees the right of the public to information from the government.

Closer to home, India and Indonesia, too, has set up similar freedom of information provisions or liberalise secrecy laws.

"From the examples given above, it is clear cut that established democracies and democratising societies alike are committed to the right to freedom of information," she said.

Cynthia argued that the attempt to tightly control information at the top, the exclusion of the masses from public affairs, and disproportionate punishments for whistleblowers, is pushing our country further away from the authoritarian democracy that it currently is, into a hard-fisted dictatorship.

"The Malaysian government is not only moving our society backwards into pre-colonial times but is shamelessly doing so under the pretense of moving forward," opined the C4 chief.

Cynthia urged that Azalina refrain from presenting false facts and baseless claims about international politics in the 21st century.

"Thus, we call on the government and its ministers to keep up with the 21st century by ceasing its use of flimsy excuses to justify its shady tactics in repressing the public, and instead, promote proper public discourse and engagement that is essential in a democratic society," concluded the NGO.