Charles Santiago |
- Judgment by Judicial Commissioner Hadhariah Syed Ismail on Disclosure of Audit report & Water Concession Agreement between the Federal and Selangor government and SYABAS on June 28, 2010.
- Putrajaya blocks Syabas information from going public
- 暂缓解密二雪州水供文件 (确保联邦政府可提出上诉)
- Govt gets stay on water concession disclosure
- Putrajaya blocks Syabas information from going public
| Posted: 02 Jul 2010 04:38 AM PDT | |
| Putrajaya blocks Syabas information from going public Posted: 02 Jul 2010 04:24 AM PDT Source:The Malaysia Insider UPDATED @ 01:08:27 PM 02-07-2010 By Yow Hong Chieh July 02, 2010
Judicial Commissioner Hadhariah Syed Ismail said that although she favoured public interest, she granted the stay so that the federal government or co-applicant Energy, Water and Communications Ministry would not have their right to appeal to the Court of Appeal frustrated. She explained that since the two Syabas documents would be revealed this coming Monday if she did not grant the stay, any filing to the Court of Appeal planned by either applicant would then be rendered moot. The Coalition against Water Privatisation filed the judicial review seeking a declaration that the audit report and concession agreement signed between Syabas and the Selangor government on Dec 15, 2004 were not confidential but public documents.
The coalition includes the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and 13 others, comprising consumers in Selangor, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. Syabas provides water for both Selangor and the Federal Territories of Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. They successfully argued that the audit report formed the basis for the 15 per cent increase in water tariffs in the Klang Valley announced by Energy, Water and Communications Minister then-Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik on Oct 14, 2006 and should be made public. Their request was rejected by the ministry on Dec 4, 2006 on the grounds that the documents were classified as confidential and government secret. However, Hadhariah had ruled on Monday that making the documents public was not detrimental to national security or public interest as argued by the federal government before granting the stay order today. "The judge was concerned about the fact that if the judgment was allowed to be enforced there would be a disclosure of the documents and the question is, really, how that would be undone if the Court of Appeal reverses the judgment of the High Court," lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said. "So when you look at it from that perspective, the judgment today was a fair one… In stay applications, the court will generally be concerned with not allowing a frustration of the right of the appeal which she said ultimately might happen if there was a disclosure." He said the case highlighted the federal government's position that it can "put a stamp of secret" on any document without any talk of whether or not such action is warranted. "When we took the case, we took the position that there should be no 'government by stealth'," he said. Malik Imtiaz, in his capacity as National Human Rights Society (Hakam) president, also said the Official Secrets Act (OSA) had been amended to allow it to be applied so widely it could be used to deny basic information to citizens. "Water is a basic need, and access to water is a basic human right," he said. "What we're trying to understand is how it is my clients here and the wider public who are obliged to take water from Syabas by virtue of a monopoly could be left in situation where they don't know why they're paying for what they're getting." He added that he had asked that the appeal be moved urgently by the government as the case was already three years in the making. He explained that the Attorney-General had eight weeks to file a record of appeal from the filing of the federal government's notice of appeal yesterday, but added that he did not see any reason for it to be delayed as the grounds of judgment and notes of evidence were already available.       | |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2010 04:19 AM PDT Source:Merdekareview 作者／本刊记者 Jul 02, 2010 03:26:50 pm
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| Govt gets stay on water concession disclosure Posted: 02 Jul 2010 03:40 AM PDT Source: The Edge Written by Bernama Friday 2 July 2010 KUALA LUMPUR: The federal government on Friday, July 2, obtained a stay on the High Court ruling which allowed the disclosure of the audit report and the water concession agreement signed with the Selangor government and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) pending an appeal. The federal government, which filed an appeal on Wednesday, was supposed to disclose the two documents by Monday. Judicial Commissioner Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who issued the ruling on June 28, allowed the stay in the suit brought by Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and 13 others asking for a judicial review to gain access to the documents. Senior federal counsel Suzana Atan today submitted that the disclosure of the documents would affect the daily administration of the government’s machinery and the public interest as a whole. She said the audit report could not be revealed as it had been classified as confidential under Section 2A of the Official Secret Act 1972. If the stay was granted, it would not inflict any hardship of the applicants, she added. Suzana said the Attorney-General’s Chambers would write a letter to the Court of Appeal to expedite the hearing of its appeal against the High Court decision. Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, for the MTUC, countered that under the Federal Constitution, the applicant had a right to the information and that the government would not be damaged as the court had viewed that making the documents public would not be detrimental to national or public interest. He also said that the Selangor government had not objected to the disclosure of the documents and welcomed the court decision. The Selangor government representative was not present today. In granting the permission, Hadhariah said if she refused the application, the appeal by the government would be rendered nugatory (invalid) if the Court of Appeal reversed her ruling. She said the matter was not a straight-forward case as it involved public interest and the government. Hadhariah said she must be balanced in her decision and that she was more on the public interest because water was a basic right and there should be transparency in the deal. On June 28, she granted the application by the MTUC and the 13 others who had asked for the judicial review after then Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik rejected their request for the documents. The applicants had written a letter to the minister on Nov 7, 2006, and the ministry replied on Dec 4, 2006, that the documents had been classified as confidential and secret. The utility now comes under the portfolio of the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry. — Bernama       | |
| Putrajaya blocks Syabas information from going public Posted: 01 Jul 2010 03:46 AM PDT Source: Mala       |
KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — The High Court has granted the federal government a stay of its earlier order to declassify the water concession agreement with Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas).
根据《马来西亚局内人》报道，承审法官哈达丽雅（Hadhariah Syed Ismail）表示，她批准有关暂缓申请，是为了确保联邦政府有权向上诉庭提出上诉，不受阻挠。
身为全国人权协会（HAKAM）主席的马列（右图）也披露，《官方机密法令》（OSA）曾遭修改及被广泛地使用以剥夺公民获取基本讯息的权力。"水是基本需求，获取水供是一种基本人权。"
承审法官哈达丽雅（Hadhariah Syed Ismail）认为申请人都有法律地位（locus standi）提出这项诉求，并决定亲自过目特许经营合约和稽查报告才作裁定。| You are subscribed to email updates from Charles Santiago To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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