Dhaka Workshop: Time to challenge govt control on information

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

Culture of silence must end: Time to challenge govt control on 
information 

By Marwaan Macan-Markar 

DHAKA: Fifty years or more of freedom have not made South Asia's 
governments more transparent or accountable. Instead they cling to a 
policy of confidentiality on official information inherited from 
British colonialists, rights activists said at a meeting here. 

The region's more than one billion people are denied the basic right 
to know the details of government policies which affect their lives 
and survival. 

Far from being a transparent government, there is a wall between the 
democratically-elected rulers and the ruled, resulting in the 
people's exclusion from decision-making processes. 

"The secrecy of government that we inherited during colonialism still 
continues, and the large section of the poor continue to suffer 
because of a lack of information," declared former Bangladeshi 
foreign minister Kamal Hossain. 

"There can be no effective accountability .. unless the people have 
the right to information," he asserted at a three-day workshop last 
week on the 'Right to Information in South Asia', organised by the 
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. 

The time has come to challenge the 'culture of silence' that prevails 
among governments in the region, speaker after speaker from India, 
Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh said. 

Deepika Udagama, a lecturer in human rights at Colombo's law faculty, 
said the Sri Lankan experience of democracy has been restricted to 
participation in elections. 

But that is changing, she added. "Now there is talk of direct 
participation; now the people want to know what is happening in their 
governments." 

In the region, only two countries have responded to a grassroots 
demand for the conceding of the 'right to information' - India and 
Pakistan. In both cases, however, the government bills still have to 
be approved by their parliaments. 

The Indian bill, for instance, titled the Freedom Of Information 
Bill, 1997, guarantees every citizen the right to "secure access to 
information under the control of public authorities, consistent with 
public interest, in order to promote openness, transparency and 
accountability." 

It was drafted following huge public pressure for openness created by 
non-governmental organisations led by the Rajasthan-based workers and 
farmers group called Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). 

Begun 10 years ago, villagers who form the backbone of the MKSS 
started campaigning for a 'social audit', which demanded a scrutiny 
on the monies spent for development by village councils. 

Raising slogans like 'Right to information; a Right to Survive' and 
'Our Money; Our Accounts', the villagers numbering in their thousands 
forced open the financial books that had been closed to them. 

"We have forced the government to be accountable," declared 
Madhusudan Mistry, an NGO activist who said the struggle for 
transparency in government programmes has been rewarding. 

Previously, bureaucrats and politicians stonewalled and dawdled over 
programmes, the full details of which were not known to people, 
saying their work could not be challenged. 

Interestingly the 'right to information' demand has been voiced by 
the marginalised sections of people in the region's countries. 

In South Asia, those below the poverty line, the rural poor, make up 
a larger slice of the population. Yet since independence in the late 
1940s, the effects of development have hardly trickled in their 
direction. For decades they have stagnated, unaware of the money and 
the benefits due their way. 

Said the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative's 
director Maja Daruwala: "This right is vital to the poor of our 
region. They will be the actual beneficiaries." 

Groups like hers would like to see the government give access to 
records of proceedings and meeting, copies of decisions, rules and 
notices, copies of entries in government registers, copies of 
accounts, of maps, of drawings and of work sites. 

If enacted into law by their governments, South Asia would be 
complying with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights, 1948, which states: "Everyone has a right to freedom of 
opinion and expression; This right includes freedom to hold opinions 
without interference and to seek receive and impart information and 
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 

In addition, the Commonwealth Law Ministers conference in Barbados in 
1990 had declared: "Public participation in the democratic and 
governmental process was at its most meaningful when citizens had 
adequate access to official information." 

But the process of putting this 'right' in statute books looks set to 
be an arduous one. Activists at the meeting agreed that one stumbling 
block before them is the 'Official Secrets Act', another legacy of 
colonial rule. 

South Asia's belief in democracy will overcome the hurdles, 
participants felt. As Salma Sobhan, prominent Bangladeshi lawyer 
said: "The people of South Asia have stood up against the tide of 
authoritarianism. They will support any idea that strengthens their 
rights." -Dawn/Inter Press Service 

(c) The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 1999


http://www.dawn.com/daily/19990711/int9.htm