Govt S Open Data Portals Lauded As First Step Towards Right To Information Law

---

 



The Statistics Department (DOSM) on Monday launched an open data portal Kawasanku to display population statistics and demographic and socio-economic indicators in an accessible format for public understanding.
This is the second recent initiative of its kind, the first being the Health Ministry’s CovidNow portal launched last September to present Covid-related figures and breakdown.
Sinar Project’s coordinator Khairil Yusof is a firm believer that CovidNow was the first to pave the road of policy to best practices, but Kawasanku takes a step further by publishing the source code of the site’s visualisations on Github.
For the record, Malaysia began its first open government data initiative in 2014 through the launch of the Public Sector Open Data Portal but was met with criticism for lack of detailed data.
Apart from granular open data allowing for better data drive policies, Khairil told Malaysiakini it would enable lawmakers to hold the government and themselves accountable and encourage a participatory digital government.
“As we have seen from CovidNow, with granular open data, it will enable innovations in services like dashboards. But (open data portals) also (enable) innovations in better data-driven policy such as (a) poverty map of Malaysia.
“By publishing and mapping census data against administrative and electoral boundaries, it will also enable elected representatives to hold the government to account, but also more accountable themselves in serving their constituents.
“Publishing open data and open-source code on collaborative platforms like Github will also enable a more participatory digital government, by providing data scientists and technologists to easily work together in an open and inclusive manner to improve the data published as well as web and mobile services built on it,” he said.
Regular monitoring needed
Meanwhile, Centre for Independent Journalism’s (CIJ) Right to Information Programme Officer Lee Shook Fong commended the DOSM’s Kawasanku initiative but cautioned that it needed to be regularly monitored for efficacy.
“This proactive transparency initiative is a good model for other government and state agencies to emulate and be open in sharing data of public interest. It allows users to access data that is critical for our analysis and decision-making. The public could also now hold the government accountable for their action on the basis of this data.
“While this is a start, it would require constant updating and upscaling. We would encourage the agencies to engage with the different stakeholders and the public and regularly monitor and gauge its efficacy. It is the right step forward in promoting a progressive right to information regime,” she told Malaysiakini.
In terms of moving forward to reach a right-to-information regime, both Lee and Khairil called for data to be open by default through the tabling of the Right to Information law.
“Right to information works on the fundamental premise that all information held by governments and government institutions are in principle public and may only be withheld or not disclosed if there are legitimate reasons, such as national security or privacy.
“Some things can be withheld and not disclosed, such as private data and information which may threaten national security. There should be legitimate, necessary and proportionate grounds for not disclosing information. The list of exceptions must be clearly articulated in legislation and must not be too broad and open to arbitrary interpretation.
“A harm test must be carried out to protect the public’s interest before restricting or denying access to information,” Lee said adding the data should come at no cost to the public.
She added that an independent oversight body must be enacted to ensure appropriate processes and procedures are in place to guarantee access to information.
Lack of disaggregated data
Kawasanku currently allows the public to see the demographic breakdown of a state of a constituency from sex, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age and marital status, based on the 2020 census.
However, CIJ executive director Wathshlah Naidu expressed concern over a lack of disaggregated data available on the website.
“An additional area for improvement will be to include disaggregated and intersectional data, including on the basis of gender diversity, disability, urban/rural divide, amongst others.
“While on one hand, it covers four major languages, it needs to be more inclusive of the East Malaysia languages as well as be accessible to those who are visually impaired.
“The next step could be to develop innovative measures (if not done yet), including apps to support and enhance accessibility for those with a specific disability,” she said.
When contacted by Malaysiakini, chief Statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that DOSM aimed to expand its inclusivity by October.
“Yes, a lot of attributes (statistics) will be added to the Kawasanku platform. It’s a work in progress.
“We have targeted this October, this platform will be much better to connect statistics with people at large,” he said. - Mkini

---