NOV 22 — Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is using it to good effect. So is Lim Guan Eng.
Both these past few weeks have freed up privileged information for public consumption, breaking down the barriers that have kept people in ignorance for so long and unable to decide what are their options.
Information is the key to it all.
Both the Selangor and Penang chief ministers have declassified reports ranging from the failure of deforestation projects to investigation reports into the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide to the conversion of prime land in Georgetown for a hotel project.
Is it in their best interest to do so? Not quite sure but both Pakatan Rakyat leaders have decided that the people's interests come first.
For Bukit Antarabangsa residents, the report reinforces their hand to get compensation or a possible legal suit against the local authorities. At the very least, the Pakatan Rakyat government can make the distinction of being the government of the day, not the godfather to protect civil servants who shirk their duties and responsibilities that could have led to the landslide.
As for the reforestation project, it shows the nexus between the previous Selangor administration and members of their own political party at the expense of the state and its people.
In Penang, the state Barisan Nasional that has lost the state is making great effort to win it back as it tries to show up Pakatan Rakyat's incompetence to rule. Unfortunately, the years of secrecy by the state government even with its own allies have been cleared by Lim — showing what a lack of information can lead to for ignorant politicians.
Of course, Lim has taken pains to explain the Penang Heritage Hotel project but there must be safeguards to ensure that public land remains that — accessible to the public. It is not a matter of profit to the state but the well-being of the people that also counts.
This is the tricky balance facing Pakatan Rakyat states. Election promises remain rhetoric in the face of the reality of managing a state and its resources for the public good.
Yet what Pakatan Rakyat leaders like Khalid and Lim have is their affinity to release locked-up information for the public to see for themselves what has been going on and how decisions are considered and made.
Society will be better off with more information as it allows them to make decisions, some of which is best left to themselves rather than to politicians.
Information is a precious commodity in this world, as valuable as honesty. Something which Barisan Nasional politicians need to learn instead of taking the easy route of making everything a state secret.
Because secrets have a tendency to leak and can be twisted to suit agendas. That's one reason why Barisan Nasional lost badly in Election 2008. It swept everything under the carpet all these years and that finally tripped them.
If only they believed in transparency and information.
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