TIME: 9^th DEC 2009

VENUE: Shah Village’s Hotel, Petaling Jaya

The President of TIM Datuk Paul Low and Josie Fernandez, Director of Policy /Campaigns /Communications (TIM) facilitated the dialogue with civil society organizations. The Secretariat staff were present to give inputs as well.

The agenda for the dialogue covered the following aspects:

-Coalition building

-Coalition Taskforce

-Strategies

-Launch of Campaign

-Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation

-Funding

The following were the outcomes of the Dialogue:

- The building of a Coalition for the FOI campaign 2010

-A task force was set up comprising the various organizations that attended the dialogue

-The coalition is to be led and funded by TI-M .

The following organizations formed the task force:

Amnesty International (AI), Bar Council (BC), Medan Damansara Residents Association, Centre For Public Policy Studies (CPPS), KOMAS, Malaysian Nature Society, National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Perak Environmental Society, Perak Consumers Association, SEDAR and Tenaganita.

(Several other organizations have indicated they will join the coalition force)

RESOURCE Persons

The following resource persons have agreed to assist in the campaign activities:

-Prof Dr Mohd Sahar (TIM Member /UKM)

-Rash Behari (Editor, individual capacity)

-Dr Goh Ban Lee—(Local Council Expert)

-Prof. Abu Bakar Munir (Faculty of Law,UM)

- M. Krishnamoorthy (Media Consultant)

-Associate Prof. Mary Magdelene (UiTM, individual capacity)

- Assoc. Prof Mustafa Annuar (Mass Comm. USM)

Launch of FOI CAMPAIGN

-During the dialogue it was agreed that the official launch of the FOI campaign would be in February 2010.

-Josie proposed to invite stakeholders from the local and foreign arts scene to give the launch a unique opening and to send the message across on how essential the FOI legislation is to everyone.

-She suggested -Speaker / FOI advocate Nick DeoCampo from the Phillipines, to be invited to the launch. He is an award winning filmmaker, author, film teacher, scholar, film festival organizer, film historian, and now the director of the Center for New Cinema.

- Datuk Paul proposed local arts scene personalities should take centre stage .

CAMPAIGN KIT

-The Task Force and resources persons will assist with information etc required for the production of the campaign kit.

- CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES

- Brainstorming through communication and consultation at different levels-Federal, state, local, public-different strategies for each level.

- Campaign Kit- must contain key messages of FOI issues and resource materials

- Dealing with the Official Secrets Act (OSA)-how to reconcile this legislation with the FOI (review sections of the OSA instead of total repeal)

- reinstate judicial review (time limit for the OSA, de-classification of protected documents),

- Ombudsman (to de-classify documents)

- FOI Day (Symbolic act)

- Address legislators-get ground swell for FOI and relate to citizens’s concerns. Use case studies from India and Indonesia on FOI legislation.

- Provide case studies/examples of current struggles underway as part of the campaign and a little booklet-eg Medan Damansara, Sarawak dams (coalition of indigenous people),

- engage the Judiciary. (some had reservations)

- Establish sub-teams for various task force such as laws, local authorities, environment, etc

- Use the “Balik Kampung” concept when disseminating information on the FOI especially to university/college students. They can spread the FOI message to areas the Coalition may not reach.

- Citizen’s Right To Information-website to be established by the TI-M Secretariat for the Task Force.

- Engage bloggers to write and promote the FOI /give recognition of successful efforts at practising the FOI by Residents Association, reporters, individuals