By Floyd French
Observer Reporter
I spent most of last week and this week trying to get government workers from the Attorney-General’s office to provide me with a copy of the Public Life Integrity Bill, which had its first reading back in 1996 but was never passed. The Bill died after the 2000 General Elections and the start of a new parliament.
I must admit that the name by which I refer to this possible hallmark of democracy might not be so. The people I spoke to in the Attorney-General’s Office seemed not to have heard of such a bill; but after my explanation it is safe to say that both parties, those in the AG’s office and myself, agreed on what such a bill would have entailed. Whether by its long or short title, the bill would fit that Shakespearean declaration: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
I must also admit, perhaps, a folly that I declared I wanted to see for myself if an Integrity Act would have prevented the Prime Minister from renting his property to the Taiwan Embassy. My curiosity was just that, a personal quest to know and perhaps share my findings with the readers of the Observer.
I truly saw no need to hide my intent because as a citizen I believe I am entitled to see a copy of draft legislation my Government was working on in 1996. But some people in the AG’s Office saw only a possible story that would have questioned the integrity of one of the framers of the bill.
My curiosity has now shifted to whether or not citizens, journalists or even comrades have a right to request information from the Government, information that the public should have a right to know.
I spent the interim between my fruitless telephone calls to officials in the legal department researching the two pieces of legislation that have now piqued my curiosity. There is, for example, a Freedom of Information Act 2000 in the United Kingdom, and of course it contains safeguards for the UK Government to withhold sensitive information. But at least there is a law that allows those seeking information and those wanting to keep information secret to jostle either in a court of justice or in the court of public opinion. To be fair, officials at the legal department said such a bill is in the pipeline.
There is also a Public Life Integrity Act in many democracies worldwide, but that Act is only relevant when there is full disclosure or a right to information. So far only two Caribbean countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda, have integrity laws. And only when my government respects my curiosity as a citizen, journalist or comrade to know how government operates and provide a check and balance to safeguard democracy for all, only then will we see integrity in all matters of public life.
