Philosophical and Historical Dimensions of Public Interest Disclosure As Aright to Information
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Quest Journals Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science Volume 3 ~ Issue 7 (2015) pp:46-52 ISSN(Online) : 2321-9467 www.questjournals.org Research Paper Philosophical and Historical Dimensions of Public Interest Disclosure as aRight to Information Rahmat Bakri, Aminuddin Ilmar, H.M. Djafar Saidi, Achmad Ruslan1 Received 16July, 2015; Accepted 10August, 2015 © The author(s) 2015. Published with open access atwww.questjournals.org ABSTRACT: The aims of this research are to reviews thephilosophical and historical dimensions of public interest disclosure as a right to information in Indonesia. The type of this research was a normative research with legal, historical, and conceptual approach. Research is conducted qualitatively with library research within primary and secondary legal sources.The outcomes of the research indicate that the public interest disclosure has a close relationship with the values of Pancasila as basic norm. Despite having a strong philosophical foundation to be applied in the administration of state and government, but based on historical tracking of the constitution in force from time to time show that the assertion of the right to information in the constitution requires a long process to make it happen as a constitutional rights. Keywords:Constitutional Right,Good Governance,Human Rights, Public Interest,Right to Information I. INTRODUCTION Right to information or right to know as an autonomous rights stated in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution 59 (1), December 14, 1946:Freedom of information is a fundamental human rights and is the touchstones of all the freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated.2Although some of the early laws guaranteeing a right to access information held by public bodies were called freedom of information laws, it is clear from the context that, as used in the Resolution, the term referred in general to the free fl ow of information in society rather than the more specifi c idea of a right to access information held by public bodies. However, until November 1989 only 13 countries have national laws and provide assurance to the citizens to access information held by government agencies. The country is Sweden in 1766, Colombia in 1888, Finland in 1951, USA in 1966, Denmark in 1970, Norway in 1970, France in 1978, the Netherlands in 1978, Australia in 1982, Canada in 1982, New Zealand in 1982, Greece in 1986, and Austria in 1987.3 The right to access information in its development has become a measure of democracy in a country. In the middle of 2008, recorded about 65 countries in the world that has had legislation that establishes a mechanism for the public request and receive information held by government.4 Recent data released by the Open Society Justice Initiative on September 25, 2013, shows a very significant development, in which about 95 countries have national laws on access to information. Some countries even put and guarantee the right to 1Lecturer at Faculty of Law, Tadulako University, Palu, Center Sulawesi, Indonesia; Obtained Bachelor of Law (2005) from Tadulako University; Master of Law (2010) from Airlangga University, Surabaya; and Currently completing the Doctoral Program of Legal Studies at Graduate School of Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia. E-mail:[email protected] 2Source: Kontras and Yayasan Tifa, Panduan Mengenal Hak Atas Informasi Publik dan Pemolisian, Jakarta, 2011, page. 15. 3Sandra Coliver, The Right to Information and the Increasing Scope of Bodies Covered by National Laws Since 1989, Available at:www.right2info.org. Accessed January 4, 2015. 4Helen Darbishire and Thomas Carson, Transparency & Silence: Sebuah Survei Undang-Undang Akses Informasi dan Prakteknya di 14 Negara, (Translated in Indonesian by Marianus Kleden and Mohammad Hamid), Yayasan Tifa, Jakarta, 2008, page. xxi. *CorrespondingAuthor: Rahmat Bakri 46 | Page Philosophical and Historical Dimensions of Public Interest Disclosure as aRight to Information information explicitly in the constitution. Here is an excerpt articles of the Constitution a number of countries which regulates the right to information:5 South Africa Article 32(1) of the South African Constitution provides, in part: Everyone has the right of access to: 1) any information held by the State; and 2) any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights. Norway Article 100 of the Constitution of Norway provides, in part: Everyone has a right of access to the documents of the State and of the municipal administration and a right to be present at sittings of the courts and elected assemblies … It is a duty of the State authorities to facilitate an open and enlightened public dialogue. Bulgaria Article 41 (2) of the Constitution of Bulgaria provides: Citizens shall be entitled to obtain information from State bodies and agencies on any matter of legitimate interest to them which is not a State or official secret and does not affect the rights of others. Philippines Article 3 (7) of the Constitution of the Philippines provides: The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by law. Brazil Article 33 of the Constitution of Brazil provides: All persons are entitled to receive from government agencies information of private interest to such persons or of collective or general interest which shall be provided within the period established by law, subject to liability, with the exception of information whose secrecy is vital to the security of society and of the state. The importance of the right to information or the right to know is an increasingly constant refrain in the mouths of development practitioners, civil society, academics, the media and even governments. The guarantee of right to information in Indonesia has been mentioned in Article 28F of the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia which stated that: Everyone shall be entitled to communicate and obtain information to develop their personality and social setting, and to find, obtain, have, keep, process, and give information with any means of channel available. This constitutional guarantee is further elaborated in Law No. 14 of 2008 concerning Public Interest Disclosure. The birth of Freedom of Information Law to be the beginning of the presence of a climate of openness in the governance process. Applicability of Freedom of Information Law imposes a duty on the government and other public bodies to open access to public information. The freedom of Information Law as a legal product born through a long process that involves the struggle of a group of civil society who are members of the Civil Society Coalition for Freedom of Information. Regime and the bureaucratic culture that during the new order is closed into its own obstacles to deliver a product legislation that would reverse the opacity is a disclosure practices. As a result, the draft law submitted to the parliament since August 2000 requires a long time to be ratified and enforced. Related how far the Freedom of Information Law to be effective in its application, can not be separated from the philosophical-historical dimensions approach. A philosophical dimension, as affirmed Hans Kelsen and Hans Nawiasky that on every country there is always a basic values or the values of the highest philosophical believed to be the source of all sources of noble values in the respective state life.6From a 5Source: Usaid, Internews, and AMDEP, Media Law and Policy Program, Center for Global Communications Studies Annenberg University of Pennsylvania, 2012, page. 31-32. 6Anshori Ilyas, Berbagai Konsep tentang Hukum sebagai Suatu Sistem, Jurnal Ilmu Hukum Amanna Gappa, 18(2), June 2010, page. 213 *CorrespondingAuthor: Rahmat Bakri 47 | Page Philosophical and Historical Dimensions of Public Interest Disclosure as aRight to Information historical dimension, according to Himawan Estu Bagijo7 to understand the intent and purpose of various laws, which can not be released in the history of its formation. Based on Bagijo’s view, a comprehensive and fundamental understanding of the freedom of information as a constitutional rights. II. IDENTIFICATION OF THE ISSUE The issue to be discussed in this paper is “How does the philosophical and historical dimensions of public interest disclosure find its legitimacy within the law enforcement concept as a right to information?” III. METHOD OF RESEARCH The type of research used in this paper is normative research, reviewing the public interest disclosure from the philosophical and historical dimensions, with the aim of constructing a new concept which is ideal to be applied in Indonesia. According to Peter Mahmud Marzuki8 legal research (normative) is a process to find the rule of law, principles of law, and the legal doctrines in order to answer the legal issues. The data being used include secondary data consisting of primary law materials in the form of laws and regulations, tertiary law materials in the form of reference books, opinion of experts, and the outcomes of previous research, as well as tertiary law materials in the form of language dictionaries, scientific law dictionary, and Black’s Law Dictionary. The analysis method applied in this paper starts with the abstraction of primary law materials, secondary law materials and tertiary law materials, leading to an understanding of the essence of the right to information as well as human rightsapproach, followed by systematization and synchronization, and finally, drawing conclusions based on the deductive syllogism reasoning method to construct a new concept. IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The Philosophical Dimension of Public Interest Disclosure Like a tree, the history of the development of a healthy nation can’t be uprooted from the land and its historical roots, socio-cultural ecosystem, a system of meaning (signification), and its own world view.