CSOs call Freedom of Information Bill ‘incompetent’, say it preserves secrecy over transparency
- ID
- 4286
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 13 Jul 2026, 7:22 PM
- Fetched
- 13 Jul 2026, 7:49 PM
- Provider
- SoyaCincau
- Category
- malaysia-tech
- Original URL
- https://soyacincau.com/2026/07/13/cso-freedom-of-information-bill-incompetent-calls-for-review/
- Source URL
- https://soyacincau.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 6.5
- Created
- 13 Jul 2026, 7:49 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_foundersai_ml_learners
What happened
A coalition of civil society organisations is urging the Malaysian government to withdraw the long-awaited Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, calling the draft 'incompetent' and warning it could entrench secrecy rather than improve public access to government-held information.
Why it matters
For Malaysian builders and data-driven startups, a weak FOI Bill limits access to government datasets that could power civic tech apps, analytics tools, and public-interest services. If the Bill preserves broad exemptions, developers and researchers will continue to face barriers to obtaining useful public-sector data.
Discussion angle
How a strong or weak FOI regime could shape the local open-data ecosystem—and what kinds of products or services Malaysian builders could create if government data were more accessible.