State Gerakan Youth legal and public complaints bureau chief Jason Loo said the practice was against the spirit of making information accessible to the public under the Penang Government’s Freedom of Information (FoI) enactment.

Loo was told to sign an SD before he obtained documents related to the sale of government land in Bayan Mutiara and Bayan Bay but refused to as it went against the FoI.

“If I signed it, it would set a bad precedent. So I did not and I plead with the Penang government to immediately remove this condition,” he said at a press conference outside the State Legislative Assembly here today.

“I was initially told that the documents were approved to be handed over to me on February 16. But now I am told that I have to sign a SD. What ridiculousness is this?” he asked, adding that he had already paid RM285 to the authorities to obtain the documents.

Loo hoped the matter would be raised in the state legislative assembly this week.

The FoI was passed in Penang in 2012 but only took effect in January 2015. Under the enactment, information must be supplied within 14 days of an application.

It was one of the state government’s election pledges in the 2008 General Election to allow for greater transparency and freedom of information.