Right to information at home and abroad
Right to information at home and abroad
This article illustrates the transformative potential of Right to Information (RTI) legislation in fostering government transparency and accountability, contrasting high-level constitutional enforcement in Sri Lanka with grassroots civic engagement in Bangladesh. It highlights how RTI serves as a critical tool for citizens to challenge state secrecy and corporate opacity, ensuring that public interests are prioritized over political or economic convenience. The Sri Lankan cases demonstrate the power of independent commissions to override executive claims of national security when requesting basic statistical data, such as detainee counts. Similarly, the law is shown to effectively compel disclosure regarding the misuse of public funds by state-linked entities, reinforcing the principle that financial transparency is essential for ethical governance and preventing corruption at the highest levels of power. Conversely, the Bangladeshi examples reveal the enduring challenges of implementing RTI at local levels, including intimidation by officials, yet also showcase its capacity for immediate, tangible impact on daily life. By securing information on social welfare distribution and environmental protection, these stories emphasize that RTI remains a vital mechanism for empowering ordinary citizens to hold local authorities accountable and demand responsible stewardship of public resources and natural assets. This content is highly relevant to the open data movement as it provides real-world proof that legal frameworks for transparency are ineffective without active citizen participation and robust institutional support. It underscores that open data is not merely a technical output but a civic right that requires enforcement mechanisms to be truly accessible and useful for promoting social equity and good governance.
Source: thedailystar.netPublished on 2023-02-16