We call upon the Singapore Government to bring about a Freedom of Information Act
We call upon the Singapore Government to bring about a Freedom of Information Act
The Issue
We call upon the Government of Singapore and its agencies to bring about The Right to Know Act (TRTKA) or The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) within the next five years
"Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." – Victor Hugo
“It is also [the Workers’ Party] duty to put forward serious policy alternatives to be scrutinised and debated”. – National Development Minister, Lawrence Wong, 18 July 2020
Presently, Singapore does not have The Right to Know Act (TRTKA) or The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For most Singaporeans, the following sites http://data.gov.sg/ and http://singstat.gov.sg/ and http://nas.gov.sg/ are places to search for public data. Information can also be found in the websites of the various public authorities. However, many of the data and information that are needed for more critical and even specialised research; as well as those needed for deep thinking and questioning; and for serious alternate policy formulations are not available on these sites. Given such a state, one would have to write in to these public authorities to request for the data and information. Approval of these requests is subject to the approval of public authorities and it is by no means guaranteed that one would get what one requests. The wait for a response by the respective public authorities might be long, frustrating and eventually disappointing. How are we able to move towards a more thinking, reflective and creative society when information can be easily held and denied by those in power?
In effect, beside the incompleteness, the omissions and missing information, one need to also realise that the available information is oftentimes carefully curated and presented. The Secretary-General of the Workers’ Party (WP), Pritam Singh, have spoken in Parliament about this. He remarked that presently “it is the government who decides what it wants to put out.” At the end of the day, the government and public authorities still has a clear and dominant hold on information. This imbalance of the information playing field has been acknowledge by a growing number of Singaporeans and their collective voices should no longer be ignored. On Sunday, 19th July 2020, the Straits Times reported National Development Minister, Mr Lawrence Wong as saying, “It is also [the Workers’ Party] duty to put forward serious policy alternatives to be scrutinised and debated”. Given this latest statement, surely there is greater saliency and urgency now more than ever to recalibrate existing policy and equalise the unfair and unequal information playing field.
It is time to modernise Singapore politics. It is time to open up government. Openness is central to the political health of a modern state. The hegemonic culture and practice of state secrecy must be critically questioned and accounted. The current government’s secrecy and monopoly over information should be limited as much as possible.
This petition aims to champion Singaporeans’ legal right to know and seek to bring to fruition the implementation of TRTKA / FOIA within the next five years. This petition also seeks a fundamental and vital change in the relationship between the government and the governed. The Singapore government needs to show in concrete terms that it is inclusive, willing and ready to trust the people by legislating our legal right to information. This right is central to the health and vitality of our polity and democracy. It would do us well to remember that information held by public authorities is not acquired for the benefit of officials or politicians but for the public as a whole.
According to Abdul Waheed Khan, former Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information of UNESCO:
“The concept of true flow of information and ideas constitute the nucleus of democracy and is also critical to the respect for Human rights. Without the right to freedom of expression, which incorporates the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas, the right to vote is undermined, human rights abuses are perpetrated in secret and it becomes impossible to expose corrupt and inefficient governments. Therefore the essence of free flow of information and ideas is predicated upon the truism that public bodies hold information not for themselves but on behalf of the public. If public bodies with a vast of information hold them in secret, the right to freedom of expression, guaranteed under international law in many constitutions and other extant law would be seriously undermined.”
Knowing “what the government is up to” is often the first step in ensuring that the government respects the civil liberties of its citizens. TRTKA / FOIA can help prevent corruption, maladministration, and promote greater public participation in the political process. It can also protect serving public officers from adverse consequences for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorisation and establish procedures for the achievement of those objectives.
The right to know has existed in Sweden since 1766, in Finland since 1951, in Denmark and Norway since 1970, in the USA since 1967, in France since 1978, in Israel since 1999, in Australia since 1982, in Canada and New Zealand since 1983 in Columbia since 1985, in Austria since 1987, in the Netherlands since 1991, in Hungary and in Ukraine since 1992, in Belgium since 1994, in Iceland since 1997, in Latvia since 1998, in Bulgaria and in the Czech Republic since 2000, in Estonia and in South Africa and in Trinidad and Tobago since 2001, in Poland and in Zimbabwe since 2002, in Mexico and in Peru since 2003, in Ecuador and in Jamaica and in Turkey since 2004, in Switzerland since 2006, in Chile and in Cook Islands and in Guatemala since 2009, in the United Kingdom since 2005, and in Germany and in Uganda since 2006, in Ethiopia and in Liberia since 2010.
Closer home, the right to know has existed in Thailand since 1997, in South Korea since 1998, in Japan since 2001, in Pakistan since 2002, in India and in Taiwan since 2005, in Nepal since 2007, in China since 2008, in Bangladesh since 2009, in Indonesia since 2010, and in Mongolia since 2011.
Even our neighbouring countries have taken strides to embark on the first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) draft. Malaysia in 2006. Philippines in 2008. Vietnam in 2009. Cambodia in 2011. In the case of Malaysia, the FOIA was approved in 2010.
As of 2019, 129 countries have the FOIAs. In light of all that have been presented, as a country and society where are we in relation to the global movement towards the right to know?
In a Select Committee hearing on online deliberate falsehoods on March 27, 2018, freelance journalist Ms Kristen Han suggested that a Select Committee be set up to study how the Freedom of Information Act could meet the needs of Singapore. The response then, by Member of Parliament, Mr Edwin Tong was: “I am sure that will be considered.”
What would bring about a change in the government’s position towards legitimising and instituting such an Act? Will the government on its own come around the view that having such an Act is necessary and vital to our polity? Will the government recognise the call for and urgency of openness or would it turn the other way and remain on its present path of keeping secrets and maintaining a hegemonic hold on information? Increasingly, there is a growing segment of Singaporeans that would be interested to know the progress taken since Mr Edwin Tong’s remarks regarding those “considerations”.
Till that time the government deems it necessary to address and act on this issue, we should not stand idly by and wait for things to happen. We need to mobilise and press home the importance, value and urgency of legislating the TRTKA / FOIA.
When enacted, the TRTKA / FOIA will provide a clear standard of openness for the Government as a whole, in keeping with the need for proper Ministerial accountability for Parliament. It is hoped that progress can and will be made within the next five years (before 2025), prior to the next general election, towards legislating Singaporeans right to know.
TRTKA / FOIA will help guard against a further deepening of government secrecy. Expectedly, there will be push back against such an idea of having TRTKA / FOIA. Being used to years of almost complete monopoly of data and information, the government’s resistance to outside scrutiny is understandable. We should not be surprised to hear the usual government refrain of “national secrets are at risk”. While there may be a possibility that “national secrets” may indeed be “at risk”, a study of existing TRTKAs / FOIAs will reveal that they have provisions to help safeguard nations’ safety and security.
At this point, one of the questions we can ask is: “Is such a reasoning alone sufficient to trump or even dismiss the advantages that FOIA possess – among them a more equitable information playing field, a better-informed citizenry and a more accountable and responsible form of governance? And, by the way, what exactly constitutes ‘national secrets being at risk’? What might they be? Who defines and decides? Whose purpose do they serve? What if these ‘national secrets at risk’ when put to light reveals somewhat narrow vested interests rather than national ones? Shouldn’t the government’s continued tendency toward managed news and suppression of public information that the people are entitled to concern us all?
The time has come. The time is now. To learn about the TRTKA / FOIA you can read up on it as well as the issues surrounding it. The references below, while modest, could serve as a starting point. If you believe that this cause is a sound and worthwhile one, to support the cause, help grow this petition by sharing it with people and organisations you know. You can share either the petition or the issues therein with our mainstream media and in alternate media sites. You can also make an appointment with your member of Parliament to engage them and to express your views and concerns in regards to this matter.
Together, the government and the governed have a co-responsibility to safeguard our future. Together, we can all help determine the colour, hue, tone, shape and contours of a fair, inclusive and democratic Singapore - one that this generation and the next have a stake in and would be proud of.
In sum, the TRTKA or the FOIA, if enacted, would be a landmark decision. It would be one of the most significant and important legal tools Singaporeans will have for furthering transparency and accountability in our country.
Singapore Boleh!
Majulah Singapura!
David Han En Kwang
Sunday, 19 July, 2020
References:
Information Commissioner’s Office (UK)
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-freedom-of-information/what-is-the-foi-act/
The 1997 British White Paper – Your Right to Know: The Government’s Proposal for a Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Singapore Working Group
Policy Proposal for Freedom of Information Bill https://foisg.wordpress.com/proposal-2/
Campaign for Freedom of Information
Reporters Without Borders
Global Right to Information Rating
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Overview of all FOI Laws
An overview of the Freedom of Information Act
The International Freedom of Information Index
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313591118_The_International_Freedom_of_Information_Index
The chilling effect of the Freedom of Information Act 2000: How real is it?
A double-edged sword: What are the implications of Freedom of Information for the Higher Education sector?
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/67/rin-foi-rpt/
The Freedom of Information has no clothes
https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/1982/3/v6n2-3.pdf
Freedom of Information in Asia-Pacific
Calls made for Freedom of Information Act in Singapore
https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/call-made-for-freedom-of-information-act-in-spore
With 10 MPs, WP expected to surface alternative policies, not just question government ones: Lawrence Wong
The end of FoI? 9 things we only know because of the Freedom of Information Act
Image Credit:
Singapore 2015 50 Years of Independence National Pledge Sheet
The Issue
We call upon the Government of Singapore and its agencies to bring about The Right to Know Act (TRTKA) or The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) within the next five years
"Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." – Victor Hugo
“It is also [the Workers’ Party] duty to put forward serious policy alternatives to be scrutinised and debated”. – National Development Minister, Lawrence Wong, 18 July 2020
Presently, Singapore does not have The Right to Know Act (TRTKA) or The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For most Singaporeans, the following sites http://data.gov.sg/ and http://singstat.gov.sg/ and http://nas.gov.sg/ are places to search for public data. Information can also be found in the websites of the various public authorities. However, many of the data and information that are needed for more critical and even specialised research; as well as those needed for deep thinking and questioning; and for serious alternate policy formulations are not available on these sites. Given such a state, one would have to write in to these public authorities to request for the data and information. Approval of these requests is subject to the approval of public authorities and it is by no means guaranteed that one would get what one requests. The wait for a response by the respective public authorities might be long, frustrating and eventually disappointing. How are we able to move towards a more thinking, reflective and creative society when information can be easily held and denied by those in power?
In effect, beside the incompleteness, the omissions and missing information, one need to also realise that the available information is oftentimes carefully curated and presented. The Secretary-General of the Workers’ Party (WP), Pritam Singh, have spoken in Parliament about this. He remarked that presently “it is the government who decides what it wants to put out.” At the end of the day, the government and public authorities still has a clear and dominant hold on information. This imbalance of the information playing field has been acknowledge by a growing number of Singaporeans and their collective voices should no longer be ignored. On Sunday, 19th July 2020, the Straits Times reported National Development Minister, Mr Lawrence Wong as saying, “It is also [the Workers’ Party] duty to put forward serious policy alternatives to be scrutinised and debated”. Given this latest statement, surely there is greater saliency and urgency now more than ever to recalibrate existing policy and equalise the unfair and unequal information playing field.
It is time to modernise Singapore politics. It is time to open up government. Openness is central to the political health of a modern state. The hegemonic culture and practice of state secrecy must be critically questioned and accounted. The current government’s secrecy and monopoly over information should be limited as much as possible.
This petition aims to champion Singaporeans’ legal right to know and seek to bring to fruition the implementation of TRTKA / FOIA within the next five years. This petition also seeks a fundamental and vital change in the relationship between the government and the governed. The Singapore government needs to show in concrete terms that it is inclusive, willing and ready to trust the people by legislating our legal right to information. This right is central to the health and vitality of our polity and democracy. It would do us well to remember that information held by public authorities is not acquired for the benefit of officials or politicians but for the public as a whole.
According to Abdul Waheed Khan, former Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information of UNESCO:
“The concept of true flow of information and ideas constitute the nucleus of democracy and is also critical to the respect for Human rights. Without the right to freedom of expression, which incorporates the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas, the right to vote is undermined, human rights abuses are perpetrated in secret and it becomes impossible to expose corrupt and inefficient governments. Therefore the essence of free flow of information and ideas is predicated upon the truism that public bodies hold information not for themselves but on behalf of the public. If public bodies with a vast of information hold them in secret, the right to freedom of expression, guaranteed under international law in many constitutions and other extant law would be seriously undermined.”
Knowing “what the government is up to” is often the first step in ensuring that the government respects the civil liberties of its citizens. TRTKA / FOIA can help prevent corruption, maladministration, and promote greater public participation in the political process. It can also protect serving public officers from adverse consequences for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorisation and establish procedures for the achievement of those objectives.
The right to know has existed in Sweden since 1766, in Finland since 1951, in Denmark and Norway since 1970, in the USA since 1967, in France since 1978, in Israel since 1999, in Australia since 1982, in Canada and New Zealand since 1983 in Columbia since 1985, in Austria since 1987, in the Netherlands since 1991, in Hungary and in Ukraine since 1992, in Belgium since 1994, in Iceland since 1997, in Latvia since 1998, in Bulgaria and in the Czech Republic since 2000, in Estonia and in South Africa and in Trinidad and Tobago since 2001, in Poland and in Zimbabwe since 2002, in Mexico and in Peru since 2003, in Ecuador and in Jamaica and in Turkey since 2004, in Switzerland since 2006, in Chile and in Cook Islands and in Guatemala since 2009, in the United Kingdom since 2005, and in Germany and in Uganda since 2006, in Ethiopia and in Liberia since 2010.
Closer home, the right to know has existed in Thailand since 1997, in South Korea since 1998, in Japan since 2001, in Pakistan since 2002, in India and in Taiwan since 2005, in Nepal since 2007, in China since 2008, in Bangladesh since 2009, in Indonesia since 2010, and in Mongolia since 2011.
Even our neighbouring countries have taken strides to embark on the first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) draft. Malaysia in 2006. Philippines in 2008. Vietnam in 2009. Cambodia in 2011. In the case of Malaysia, the FOIA was approved in 2010.
As of 2019, 129 countries have the FOIAs. In light of all that have been presented, as a country and society where are we in relation to the global movement towards the right to know?
In a Select Committee hearing on online deliberate falsehoods on March 27, 2018, freelance journalist Ms Kristen Han suggested that a Select Committee be set up to study how the Freedom of Information Act could meet the needs of Singapore. The response then, by Member of Parliament, Mr Edwin Tong was: “I am sure that will be considered.”
What would bring about a change in the government’s position towards legitimising and instituting such an Act? Will the government on its own come around the view that having such an Act is necessary and vital to our polity? Will the government recognise the call for and urgency of openness or would it turn the other way and remain on its present path of keeping secrets and maintaining a hegemonic hold on information? Increasingly, there is a growing segment of Singaporeans that would be interested to know the progress taken since Mr Edwin Tong’s remarks regarding those “considerations”.
Till that time the government deems it necessary to address and act on this issue, we should not stand idly by and wait for things to happen. We need to mobilise and press home the importance, value and urgency of legislating the TRTKA / FOIA.
When enacted, the TRTKA / FOIA will provide a clear standard of openness for the Government as a whole, in keeping with the need for proper Ministerial accountability for Parliament. It is hoped that progress can and will be made within the next five years (before 2025), prior to the next general election, towards legislating Singaporeans right to know.
TRTKA / FOIA will help guard against a further deepening of government secrecy. Expectedly, there will be push back against such an idea of having TRTKA / FOIA. Being used to years of almost complete monopoly of data and information, the government’s resistance to outside scrutiny is understandable. We should not be surprised to hear the usual government refrain of “national secrets are at risk”. While there may be a possibility that “national secrets” may indeed be “at risk”, a study of existing TRTKAs / FOIAs will reveal that they have provisions to help safeguard nations’ safety and security.
At this point, one of the questions we can ask is: “Is such a reasoning alone sufficient to trump or even dismiss the advantages that FOIA possess – among them a more equitable information playing field, a better-informed citizenry and a more accountable and responsible form of governance? And, by the way, what exactly constitutes ‘national secrets being at risk’? What might they be? Who defines and decides? Whose purpose do they serve? What if these ‘national secrets at risk’ when put to light reveals somewhat narrow vested interests rather than national ones? Shouldn’t the government’s continued tendency toward managed news and suppression of public information that the people are entitled to concern us all?
The time has come. The time is now. To learn about the TRTKA / FOIA you can read up on it as well as the issues surrounding it. The references below, while modest, could serve as a starting point. If you believe that this cause is a sound and worthwhile one, to support the cause, help grow this petition by sharing it with people and organisations you know. You can share either the petition or the issues therein with our mainstream media and in alternate media sites. You can also make an appointment with your member of Parliament to engage them and to express your views and concerns in regards to this matter.
Together, the government and the governed have a co-responsibility to safeguard our future. Together, we can all help determine the colour, hue, tone, shape and contours of a fair, inclusive and democratic Singapore - one that this generation and the next have a stake in and would be proud of.
In sum, the TRTKA or the FOIA, if enacted, would be a landmark decision. It would be one of the most significant and important legal tools Singaporeans will have for furthering transparency and accountability in our country.
Singapore Boleh!
Majulah Singapura!
David Han En Kwang
Sunday, 19 July, 2020
References:
Information Commissioner’s Office (UK)
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-freedom-of-information/what-is-the-foi-act/
The 1997 British White Paper – Your Right to Know: The Government’s Proposal for a Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Singapore Working Group
Policy Proposal for Freedom of Information Bill https://foisg.wordpress.com/proposal-2/
Campaign for Freedom of Information
Reporters Without Borders
Global Right to Information Rating
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Overview of all FOI Laws
An overview of the Freedom of Information Act
The International Freedom of Information Index
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313591118_The_International_Freedom_of_Information_Index
The chilling effect of the Freedom of Information Act 2000: How real is it?
A double-edged sword: What are the implications of Freedom of Information for the Higher Education sector?
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/67/rin-foi-rpt/
The Freedom of Information has no clothes
https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/1982/3/v6n2-3.pdf
Freedom of Information in Asia-Pacific
Calls made for Freedom of Information Act in Singapore
https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/call-made-for-freedom-of-information-act-in-spore
With 10 MPs, WP expected to surface alternative policies, not just question government ones: Lawrence Wong
The end of FoI? 9 things we only know because of the Freedom of Information Act
Image Credit:
Singapore 2015 50 Years of Independence National Pledge Sheet
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Petition created on 18 July 2020