‘You’ve got nothing to fear if you’ve got nothing to hide’

The year 2013 has just ended and we’re barely into the new year. It’s the perfect time to look back at our victories and successes, but it’s also an opportune time to think about the steps we’d like to take moving forward. That’s why the new year is the time when people start making resolutions and renewing promises long forgotten.

A resolution that we’d like to see from our government, if that government does choose to move on the straight road forward, is a commitment to transparency and accountability. For all the talk of reform and the clamor against corruption, there is one great resolution that has yet to be realized: the Freedom of Information Law. It is a resolution, an old promise, that we’ve been trying to keep for more than 20 years now.

Now, more than any other time, we are hopeful. We are hopeful that our Congress will finally decide to take that great step towards reform. We are hopeful that our public servants finally make the change to end all the corruption and abuse of power we are so tired of hearing about. The new year gives us new hope: that our government can finally act out that commitment to a transparent, accountable and democratic standard.

The Senate is making great progress with the FOI bill. But this leaves much to be desired from the House of Representatives which has a great deal of catching-up to do. So to the representatives of the people who are having second thoughts or doubts about the FOI bill, you’ve got nothing to fear if you’ve got nothing to hide.

Hopefully, 2014 will be the year when we can finally fulfill that commitment to the freedom of information.

—AJ MONTESA, president,

UP Economics Towards Consciousness (ETC); convener, FOI Youth Initiative (FYI), youth4foi@gmail.com