Impact of RTI

After his conviction for charges of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust in the SRC International trial, former Prime Minister Najib Razak was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine of RM210 million. But on 2 February 2024, the Pardons Board reduced Najib Razak’s sentence  to only six years, and his fine was reduced to RM50 million. 

Despite public outcry, the public has been left in the dark, as the Pardons Board has not disclosed the rationale behind its decision. 

Part of the Election Commission’s (EC) constitutional duty is to present proposed boundary changes to constituents affected by these changes, displaying the relevant map and the boundaries. Affected constituents then have the right, within 30 days, to file objections to the EC’s proposed changes. However, the EC did not provide this information to the residents of Johor. Haris Ibrahim, a steering committee member of Bersih 2.0, filed a legal suit against the EC over the redelineation exercise and petitioned for more information about the decision-making process. Ultimately, the courts dismissed Haris’ lawsuit, citing that it had no merit and that he had no cause of action against the EC. Haris’ lawyer, Malik Imtiaz, even raised the concern that voters could not exercise their freedom of expression without the right to information to accompany it.

Until 2020, the Malaysian government has paid RM6.08 billion to Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn. Bhd. (BNS) for the purchase of six combat ships. However in 2022, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released a report stating that not a single ship had been completed even though the first ship was due to be delivered in April 2019. Instead, the BNS’ subsidiaries used RM400 million of the payments received for the LCS project to settle the bad debts of the old NGPV (New Generation Patrol Vessel) project.

The Defense Minister then, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamid approved the project and denied any fraud in terms of his involvement. This delay incurred an additional cost of RM2.098 billion from the original cost of RM9.128 billion.

Though PAC released said report, and two other reports from 2018 and 2020 were later declassified, given the project was open tender, information on this should have been publicly available from the beginning for accountability and the public interest!

When the team at CodeBlue received the report of the independent Inquiry into the  2016 Sultanah Aminah Hospital fire in Johor – the worst hospital fire in Malaysia’s history – it was ascertained, from the look of it, that the document had been declassified.  A  journalist from Code Blue had even called Health Minister Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad, who confirmed that the report was indeed declassified. The document, however, did not have upon it the dates of when it was classified or declassified. Even so, after the report was published, there was a police investigation against the CodeBlue team under Section 203A of the Penal Code as well as under the OSA. Public interest issues must be made available to the public to prevent these things from happening again!

In 2021, environmental group PEKA (Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam) submitted an official request for a copy of the Forestry Department’s report on the KLNFR, but it was rejected on the grounds that it is classified and affects the policy and development of the state. KLNFR is one of the last peat swamp forests in southern Selangor and the failure to get any information further disempowers PEKA from protecting the swamp forests. 

Selangor State Executive Councillor for the environment, Hee Loy Sian, revealed that there were no objections to degazettement of the KLNFR by destroying 536.7 hectares (equivalent to 865 football fields) by multiple government departments and the Dean of Faculty of Forestry and Environment of Universiti Putra Malaysia during technical meetings.

However, even though the request was rejected, you or anyone can still appeal them!