IT was troubling to read Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s reasons for the release of eight immigration officers detained without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Hishammuddin said he decided to release the eight, detained “in connection” with human trafficking activities, because they showed “remorse” over their mistakes. He also considered their wishes [...]

THE federal government has prevailed yet again in keeping secrets from the Malaysian public. On 25 Feb 2011, the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court decision compelling the disclosure of an audit report and a 2004 water concession agreement. How are the audit report and the agreement significant? And why did the Court of [...]

IF Selangor’s Freedom of Information (FOI) bill is made law, how useful will it be in helping the public gain access to information held by the government? The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government tabled the bill for its first and second reading on 14 July 2010, and a select committee will now be collating feedback and [...]

PETALING JAYA, 16 July 2010: All 222 Members of Parliament (MPs) have been contacted for the MP Watch: Eye on Parliament project, and have responded with either full answers or a non-reply. As of 15 July, 113 MPs answered in full all six questions on key democracy issues that were posed to them. The other [...]

A SHOW-CAUSE letter sent to whistleblower Dr Selva Vathany Kanapathi Pillai, who has been highlighting mismanagement at the Orang Asli hospital in Gombak, cites rule 19 of the Peraturan-Peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993. It states, amongst other things, that a civil servant cannot make any public statement or provide factual information about the [...]

“IS Umno its own worst enemy? Does it need to lose power before it can reform?” These questions and more were posed to Members of Parliament (MPs) Khairy Jamaluddin, Tony Pua and Nurul Izzah Anwar at The Nut Graph’s recent forum, Found in Conversation: Creativity and Innovation in Politics. “Why does our prime minister have [...]