Why not Sri Lanka have "Right to Information Act ? "

l by N. S. Venkataraman

(22 July, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Right to Information Act can be an extremely powerful method to empower the citizens and build deep roots for democracy in a country. Surely, this is the way to make the government accountable to the people at least to some extent, for its actions and policies. Any government that cherish democratic values and respect the views of citizens should have no hesitation to introduce Right to Information Act.

Of course, the Right to Information Act is no guarantee that the corruption in administration and nepotism in the actions of the government would be curbed once for all.

It is reported in the media that President of Sri Lanka has categorically said that the Right to Information Act would not be introduced in Sri Lanka. This is a negative and counter productive stance and would create suspicions among the people that the government has lot to conceal.

Indian experience :

Right to Information Act was enacted in India a few years back with much fanfare. Though it has not made much difference to improve the quality of governance, still it certainly has provided some confidence to the concerned and courageous citizens to ask for details about the acts of commission and omission by the government and bring its mistakes to the public domain.

Several activists in India complain that the government departments find ways and means to delay giving the replies to the questions asked under Right to Information Act and sometimes even ignore the questions submitted to them. Many times, the government departments reject the letters on some flimsy grounds or give irresponsible replies stating that the query should have been addressed to some other departments, instead of forwarding it to the concerned departments themselves The fact is that on many occasions, the government departments do not have the information with them or unwilling to provide them and therefore make the activists run from pillar to post to get the information that they need.

Many activists have complained that they have to persist with their queries for several months to get the reply from the government departments. Though Information Commissioners have been appointed in each state to ensure that the questions under Right to Information Act would be provided with appropriate replies by the government departments within stipulated time , many times such Information Commissioners themselves are being faulted by the activists for not acting with speed and doing their duty.

Further, in recent times, many cases of violent assaults and attacks on those who have asked questions under Right to Information Act have been reported in the media. Those who asked questions have even been murdered and the family of such victims suffer helplessly, with the police taking long time to investigate the case and judiciary even taking longer time to award punishment to the culprits.

Now , it is even said that the government is considering some amendments to Right to Information Act so that certain types of queries can be prevented in the name of official secrecy and protection of national interests .

Nevertheless, the Right to Information Act has now given new confidence and hope to the common man about restoring probity in the actions of the government.

Why not in Sri Lanka ?

It is reported in the media that President of Sri Lanka has categorically said that the Right to Information Act would not be introduced in Sri Lanka. This is a negative and counter productive stance and would create suspicions among the people that the government has lot to conceal.

So far, it appears that there have been no big clamour or demand from the citizens of Sri Lanka to ask the government to enact such act, which will significantly enhance the quality of democracy in Sri Lanka.

It is true that the Right to Information Act in India has not brought out any big changes but the hope of change remains.

Sri Lankan citizens will do well to study the scenario in India after the enactment of Right to Information Act and count the blessings and make it happen in Sri Lanka also.