Organizer: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Event: News articles among the Commonwealth countries
Date: September 26-28, 2005

Description: Articles on the Right to Know Day 2005 were published across the
Commonwealth countries, like Bangladesh, Fiji, Guyana, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone

Guyana: Trotman to pilot Freedom of Information bill, Stabroek news, Sep. 28, 2005

Trotman to pilot Freedom of Information bill
Stabroek news | September 28, 2005

A Freedom of Information (FOI) bill is ready for submission to the Clerk of the National Assembly for subsequent presentation to Parliament on Members' Day.

It is expected that the bill, which was essentially put together from the Indian and Trinidad and Tobago models, would be laid in the National Assembly after Parliament reconvenes following the August to October recess.

MP Raphael Trotman, who was instrumental in ensuring that the bill was completed said the basic objective was to ensure that all the information in the possession of a public authority could be accessed save and except in instances of national security.

The FOI bill makes provision for individuals to access information regarding the decisions of Parliament, government ministries, regional authorities, the courts, Cabinet, companies or commercial entities in which the government has shares or that fall under the bracket of public authority.

Trotman, who along with MPs Khemraj Ramjattan and Sheila Holder are spearheading the new political movement, Alliance For Change (AFC), will present the bill to the National Assembly.

"Our bill is going to be based heavily on the Trinidadian, and to some extent, the Indian models," Trotman said. "We are not trying to reinvent the wheel." He said the AFC believed the time had come when information was needed to ensure trust, transparency and good governance.

He said he wrote to the Clerk of the National Assembly, in a letter dated September 7, for guidance on the correct procedure to be used to present a private member's bill and received a reply dated September 20. He expects the FOI bill would be presented to the National Assembly within a few weeks.

He took the time to enquire about the procedure, he said, to make sure that the bill would not simply be sideswiped. Before a private member's bill is laid, the MP is required to present a petition to the National Assembly.

Trotman said at present there were agencies that wanted to align themselves with the bill and he and his AFC colleagues were having discussions with them as well as encouraging others to become involved in the discussions. He stressed that it was not an AFC bill but one that was being presented on behalf of persons interested in trust, transparency and good governance.

He referred to the current discourse taking place on the Rupununi Uprising in the late 1960's, noting that had laws governing freedom of information been in place, even though it was a military matter, "at least we would have had the reports that were presented. We would have closure if we knew what happened."

Were there no FOI laws in place in the United Kingdom and the USA, he said, Guyanese would not have been able to read and understand some of Guyana's earlier political history. He said FOI was a fundamental piece of legislation found in all democracies and should be supported in Guyana.

Today is being observed as International Right to Information Day in keeping with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression which includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Julia Johnson, said the media grouping would support any move to enact such legislation.

She said that because of the absence of FOI laws, "we are seeing our history being distorted, especially Guyana's political history. We heard all the bad things about [former President Forbes] Burnham by the current administration and in Burnham's days we heard all the bad things about the colonial government."

Johnson also referred to the Rupununi Uprising: "We have retired Major General Joe Singh, who actually headed that [operation]. Isn't it time that we declassify those records and let accuracy prevail?" she asked.

She said that since the FOI Act came into being earlier this year in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, it had cleared the air on issues where disinformation had in the past been perpetuated as fact.

She feels laws governing the freedom of information would compel public officials who are paid by taxpayers to give an accurate account of their stewardship through the media. (Miranda La Rose)

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=31255022