Obligatory and Timely: RTI

A priority for any government which is seriously committed to transparency and accountability to the public should be entrenching the right to information (called RTI after this). Constitutional provision of RTI alone is not enough and therefore, needs enactment of a specific law. It should also be born in mind that provisions form the basis for such a law.
The rights to information statute, freedom of information statute are some examples of what some of the other democracies in the world have enacted in allowing citizenry rights in terms of information consumption. Only when democratic populace has access to information about the decisions it’s government makes can they truly use powers democracy promises them. The right of the public to access information is vital to making democratic participation more meaningful.

An effective tool in exposing corruption, access to information will complement the government’s strong anti-corruption policy in Bhutan of zero tolerance, it is inevitably a vital force. The public would then truly be participating in the local development and ensuring that development the local government does their jobs correctly, on time and in keeping with relevant rules. While RTI remains a constitutional obligation to have in place, it is also critical that the public at large understand RTI as future users of the statue. Individually and as well as institutions (media for instance), we may have a lot of questions that need answering too. This is not to say that answers are not available now but clearer institutionalized mechanisms need to be in place. Mechanisms which would make information sharing a necessity and for others, points of delivery for information consumers established so that public information does not become proprietary to any one person or institution (unless it concerns national security). It has been a year since knowledge of draft legislation on the right to information has come in the knowledge of the public (post democracy) and since then there has been no news. Right to information legislation has the potential to bring about more transparency and openness in governance and democracy to the people. By not giving it enough priority, it would delay the public that right by such duration and period, especially at a time when we talk so much of a vision of a vibrant and functioning democracy with zero corruption.

Hon'ble Minister for Ministry of Information and Communication on RTI

I sought an appointment with the Hon'ble Minister for the Ministry of Information and Communication in the morning today. He was kind enough to accomodate me around his lunch time. I would like to thank the Hon'ble Minister for always being so accomodating. I had gone to see the Hon'ble Minister on the status of the Right to Information Bill (RTI).

Sometime last year (please forgive my lack of specificity on the date) a workshop was organized where participants from different agencies, including the media, were invited to discuss the draft RTI with an expert from India who had worked on the RTI in India. With hind sight, one realizes the discussions had been mostly about information sharing protocal (on the day that I had joined the workshop), albeit the absence of a RTI draft on the table for the participants. Perhaps, since I had joined only mid way through the workshop, I might have been mistakenh to believed it was really about RTI with a need for a framework or gist of the draft RTI. But I did hear the work RTI mentioned several times during the workshop but no one really had a copy. Nonetheless, it has been a while and with the 5th session of the Parliament drawing closer and dates for submission of draft Bills to the Parliament, it's timely to wonder what the Parliament may table this time.

The RTI, I hear has been in the draft for a while now. Although enshrined in the Constitution, without actually enacting a legislation, it would be difficult to bring the relevant provision into effect. The editorial of Kuensel today mentioned that there were more questions than answers and questions need answering. This is just one of the many questions the Public may have today. The provision in the Constitution needs to be invoked by legislating the RTI statute.

According to the Information and Communication Minister the cabinet had not arrived at any definite decision as to when the draft Bill would be sent to the Parliament but it does appear that the government will be tabling it sometime in a year or so. The cabinet receives matters and prioritizes them and RTI does not appear to be in the priority folder at the moment, although it remains a matter of persepctive if it does deserve priority.

The good news is that the draft has been distributed to the cabinet members for scrutiny and will be discussing and would eventually be sent to the Parliament but the bad news is, there is no timeline or any dates yet.

Right to Information for Bhutan

Section 3 of Article 7 of our Constitution clearly states that a Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to information.

The MOIC had organized a workshop on the topic with particpants from a host of agencies and chaired by the Secretary of MOIC. Since then there has been no news and developments on the matter. The 5th session of the Parliament is approaching and I hope that we can and will be taking it up this session. Governance is at the very heart of democracy and the support and political of the Government was visible with the initiative of the exercise but one may get skecptical if it takes too long for it to come into public domain.

I have now set up a page for dessimination and sensitization on the matter.