How right to information helped Sri Lanka manage its crisis
The article argues that effective access to information is a critical component of good governance and economic stability, as evidenced by the International Monetary Fund’s recent recommendation for Sri Lanka to strengthen its Right to Information (RTI) framework. By empowering citizens to monitor government actions, particularly vulnerable groups, robust RTI mechanisms serve as a vital tool for preventing corruption and restoring public trust during financial crises. This highlights the broader implication that transparency is not merely a legal formality but a prerequisite for sustainable development and resilient governance structures. However, the success of such institutions depends heavily on three enabling factors: an active civil society that treats information requests as public interest watchdogs rather than personal tools, collective mobilization to defend commission decisions, and the impartial selection of commissioners. Sri Lanka’s relative success stems from strong NGO engagement and high-impact requests that address national issues. In contrast, Bangladesh faces significant challenges, including a dormant civil society, a lack of collective defense for commission rulings, and opaque commissioner appointments, which hinder the potential for meaningful accountability. This comparison is highly relevant to open data advocacy because it illustrates that technical access to information is insufficient without societal capacity and institutional integrity. For open data initiatives to truly promote transparency, they must be coupled with efforts to build civic literacy and protect institutional independence. Without these foundational elements, data availability remains underutilized, and the promise of open governance fails to materialize, leaving systems vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement.
Source: thedailystar.netPublished on 2023-10-16
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