May 7, 2012Dear Sir,Last week’s good news about the death of plans by Cabinet Ministers Zane DeSilva and Wayne Furbert to build on protected and environmentally-sensitive land, obscured an interesting insight into Minister Marc Bean’s attitude about public information. In his press conference, he announced that a decision on Wayne Furbert’s building had been made on March 20, and had been made available to the public at the Department of Planning. He seemed to pounce on the fact that no one had noticed, as if it was confirmation for him that the public didn’t know what it was doing. He said that it was an unprecedented step that he should publicly announce his decision on a public appeal, and he made a great point of saying that he had been perfectly within his rights to delay making a decision for six months, from November to May.It was a highly defensive sort of performance, and I for one thought that underlying it must be a belief that the public really ought not to have a right to expect him to explain himself in any way. Why do you suppose Marc Bean thinks he ought to be able to take six months to make a decision most of us would have been able to make in a day? Why do you think he believes it is unprecedented that he should communicate with the public over a matter of great public importance? The answer seems clear. He does not believe in the public’s right to know about what he does. It is a belief that is quite obviously shared by his Cabinet colleagues generally. After all, the then-Minister Walter Roban must have been convinced that his decision to allow both appeals, later discarded as procedurally incorrect, would either never see the light of day, or would meet such weak opposition that he’d get away with it.And the arrogance with which the Government goes ahead with its plans regardless of public opposition or informed opinion over and over and over again confirms that. Yet, we also hear Government figures from top to bottom trumpet their commitment to honesty and clarity and transparency over and over again. Do you suppose they simply don’t know what that means?JUST WATCHINGPaget