Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of governance and integrity Paul Low has said that a Freedom of Information (FOI) law is not yet feasible for Malaysian society, as both Malaysians and the Federal Government do not know how to manage and use information responsibly.
Low told Eileen Ng of The Malaysian Insider today that there was more to the FOI Act than granting ordinary citizens the right to access government data.
“The FOI Act is ideal but when you establish the FOI Act, the first thing you got to know is that the FOI Act is not free. Everything needs a boundary.
“When data is given to society, you must use it responsibly, in a way that’s constructive. If you want to have all open data, you must be more responsible.”
Low added that implementing such a law would require additional resources and infrastructure.
“To set up a FOI Act, you need infrastructure. You may need 300 people to deal with so much information, so it’s not just an Act in itself, as you need information officers. That is why, at the moment, it’s not feasible.”
Malaysians have been demanding more transparency from Putrajaya, especially in light of the scandals surrounding sovereign development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), and the mystery of the USD700 million (RM2.6 billion) “donation” transferred into the personal bank accounts of Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2013, two months before the 13th General Elections.
