A Survey on Statutory Reform for the Right to Impart Public Sector Information in Malaysia

The aim of the research is to propose a statutory reform for the right to impart public sector information (PSI) in Malaysia. Malaysia neither have a specific law nor constitutional provisions for the right to information. As former British colony, Malaysia inherits secrecy, sedition, printing and publication laws that impede the exercise of the right. The research conducts a survey involving respondents representing government agency, independent statutory body, civil society and academia. The survey is aimed at finding statutory measures deemed appropriate for statutory reform of the right to impart PSI in Malaysia. Prior to the survey, the research analysed various statutory measures enabling, protecting and promoting the right to impart PSI from selected Commonwealth countries. These statutory analyses become the basis for the development of the survey instrument of the research. The survey instrument covers 11 statutory measures for reform in six critical areas of law i.e. constitutional, secrecy, sedition, publication, whistleblower and evidence laws. The findings of the survey indicate that all 11 statutory measures are deemed appropriate for statutory reform of the right to impart PSI in Malaysia. The findings further indicate that statutory reform is necessary for three colonial era laws i.e. secrecy, sedition and evidence laws. Statutory reform is also found to be necessary for three other post-colonial laws i.e. constitution, publication and whistleblower laws. The findings of the survey have been used as an input in the proposed statutory reform for the right to impart PSI in Malaysia.