Selangor's Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is better than Penang's, an anti-corruption watchdog said, as it compared the legislation between the two Pakatan-led states.

Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) director Cynthia Gabriel said Penang did not express its CAT (competency, accountability and transparency) principles clearly in the preamble of the Act.

Selangor, on the other hand, states very clearly that the Act is to address the issue of accountability and transparency in governance, she said.

Cynthia said Section 3 of the Selangor FOI Act states that the officer in charge has to facilitate the re-question in obtaining the documents she or he needs with due haste.

“That means they must be trained very efficiently and effectively to carry out their tasks to facilitate the FOI applicant,” she said during her speech at the Freedom of Information Forum.

The forum was organised by Penang Institute in collaboration with C4 and the office of the Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, who is in charge of FOI issues.

Cynthia added that unlike Penang’s Act, Section 11 of the Selangor FOI Act states that the exemption list (of documents which can be released) should be as small as possible.

“We should be looking at allowing more and more information, especially those that involve public interest issues,” said Gabriel.

“Section 18 of the Selangor FOI Act is totally missing from the Penang enactment, where it states that state government officials cannot block or frustrate the release of information; that it is an offence for any civil servant or member of state administration who actively block such documents,” Cynthia noted.

“Selangor is not perfect but because both are state governments ruled by Pakatan Harapan, civil society advocates recommend that the leadership sit together to iron out the details so that the legislation will be more similar, so that the people will feel more confident that Pakatan stands for the same things,” Cynthia said.

'Penang to review concerns'

Responding to this, Ramasamy said Penang’s FOI should be better than Selangor, earning him cheers from the crowd.

He said the state government would look into the list of exemptions and make the necessary amendments to facilitate FOI.

He said the state executive councillors were already looking into the necessity of imposing statutory declarations on those who want to obtain classified documents.

The SDs were reportedly necessary to prevent applicants from “abusing the information by profiting from the sale of documents”.

“I will be submitting a paper to the state excos on the FOI so that they can review the concerns raised by several quarters,” Ramasamy said, at the two-day forum held in conjunction with the International Right to Know Day, which falls on September 28.

“We have not had any amendments since 2012, so surely we can suggest some to improve the enactment.

“But one thing must be made clear, there is no attempt on the part of the state government to hide anything or deceive the public,” he stressed.

“The state has its interests, and we are concerned that some documents may be abused especially when we are always attacked; some may say that the information deals with overriding public interest, (but) who determines that? A group of journalists or the public?”

While Penang Institute CEO-cum-Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari gave the opening speech, other speakers in the forum were Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming and Malaysiakini journalist Low Chia Ming. Penang Island City Councillor Syerleena Abdul Rashid moderated the event.