{"id":193871,"date":"2018-09-29T13:31:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-29T08:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=193871"},"modified":"2018-10-04T12:30:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T07:00:09","slug":"challenges-for-sri-lankas-rti-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/challenges-for-sri-lankas-rti-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenges For Sri Lanka’s RTI For The Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena<\/a> \u2013<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena<\/p><\/div>\n

Many governments around the world jib nervously at the thought of introducing Right to Information<\/a> laws due to fears that these laws may only work against them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That fear is right, to a certain extent. But away from sensational media headlines focusing on information targeting the political line of command and attention grabbing conferences, enacting a good RTI law often works to the advantage of a Government. This is a fact that is often underestimated. A quiet and sometimes unnoticed transformation takes place as step by gradual step, ordinary citizens start probing and prodding a leviathan bureaucracy that in Asia, has been able to survive changes of political regimes without actually reforming itself in any manner whatsoever \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Citizens who are otherwise helpless facing this leviathan gradually realize that an information law may actually help them, perhaps for the first time in a historic background where laws are often worked against them. In fact, as we see in Sri Lanka, public officers themselves have used the law to expose injustice and even corruption. Speaking from the standpoint of Sri Lanka\u2019s Information Commission, we see this acknowledgement of the good done by the country\u2019s RTI Act regularly, from people who appear before us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, it must also be emphasized that two main principles informed the drafting committee which formulated the RTI Bill that was enacted into law in the month of August 2016.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First was the principle of equity applied to state and non-state bodies in securing transparency. So the Act includes not only state entities and constitutional entities downwards from the office of the President but also corporates that function with government backing, private entities contracting with the government and non-governmental organisations substantially funded by government, foreign governments or international organisations to the extent of their \u2018rendering a service to the public\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Act also covers security and intelligence bodies unlike other regional RTI laws. There was a stern and uncompromising refusal to sacrifice best practice norms for expediency. So for example, in the face of considerable pressure that Sri Lanka\u2019s law should have national security agencies or the department of the chief prosecutor exempted from its reach, our insistence was that no agency can be deemed to be above the law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This was a remarkable development. For decades, Sri Lanka\u2019s civil and ethnic conflict had resulted in information being officially denied by the law. Non-disclosure of information was the norm while disclosure was the exemption. Departing from this thinking, the basic principle was that, where exceptions apply, these must be by subject matter not by the privileging of certain institutions. All of these are subjected to the public interest override.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second principle was that the conviction that RTI should not be seen as the enemy of the public service. The Act protects the information officer (as well as other officers) from any consequences of carrying out his duties under the Act (Sections 30 and 40)\u00a0<\/span>and also makes it an offence if any other officer refuses without reasonable cause to render assistance to the information officer when that assistance is sought.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Sri Lanka\u2019s RTI emerged from a core group of committed journalists, academics and legal activists. It was not a people-based grassroots campaign. The media had consistently put right to information forward as an indispensable part of media-law reform. As a result, this was seen as a media tool, rather than a democratic or a broader civil liberties tool. Even so, it has been a source of considerable satisfaction that in the first one and a half years of it being operationalized, ordinary people have used it far more than the media or even civil society activists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I will use one illustration to make my point regarding the impact of this law on a system riddled with corruption for decades.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Late last year, the Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka comprising the national union of airline pilots in the country filed an appeal before the RTI Commission, asking for the salaries and other benefits paid to the CEO and other top executives of Sri Lankan Airlines, the national carrier along with substantial material relating to Board decisions taken by the management resulting in major losses to the airlines.<\/p>\n

In fact, SriLankan Airlines is currently being run only on moneys given by the Treasury due to years of corruption, bad management and inefficiency turning a once profitable airlines into a hugely loss making burden.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pilots Guild appeal was the 99th<\/sup> Appeal to be listed before the Commission. It was resisted strongly by Sri Lankan with the national carrier coming to the Commission with lawyers using every skill in the book and every legal point, substantive and technical to resist giving the information. However, after six months of intensive hearing, the Commission handed down a 25 page Order directing Sri Lankan to give all information asked for in the public interest, excepting some documentation regarding an ongoing negotiation with Airbus SAS which was held back due to concerns relating to commercial confidence. Within a month of the Commission Order, SriLankan released the information asked for. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And there are many more examples in this regard. The nature of the information released by Commission Orders includes;<\/p>\n