Public Consultation

Many attended the inaugural dialogue session between YB Ronnie Liu, Selangor State Exco for Local Government and Residents last Sunday at the D'Kelana Hall, Petaling Jaya. This is part of the roadshow program hosted by the State Government to gather information from the residents about the performance of local authorities. It was done as many questions raised during the last State Assembly Meeting were targeted at the performance of local authorities.

The session ran wild a bit when many people wanted to share their concerns. Many touched on the security, shoddy infrastructure works, traffic congestion, illegal use of residential buildings, complaints management system, lack of responses, ineffective of communication, malpractice, planning approval for development projects and other administration problems. These problems are very much local centric and is resolvable. Many time, the problems were accumulated over some time due to inaction and lack of communication. It is believed with some form of urgency, pro activeness and monitoring, many of the problems can be solved. All in all, meet them in person as fast as possible instead of getting the problems out of hand. We must remember the parable of broken window that you have to fix a problem faster than it can further deteriorate or else it will become unsolvable. Similarly, an urban services minor problem will become major if not attended to. For example, a pot hole due to water leaking will be getting bigger if no action is taken.

During the session also saw the name calling. To me, this is uncalled for. Consultation is a forum for various stakeholders come together to brainstorm and reach consensus on issues. It is not a platform to discredit someone openly. We should not go into personal attacking. We should be polite and considerate in bringing out concerns although it might be with high dissatisfaction tune. Confronting and making others angry will definitely not helping us to find an amicable solution. It will aggravate the situation further. Perhaps we must have organised the course on alternative community disputes resolution too.

Public participation is also about right content and context. Some argued about short notice attending the forum and some talked about the timing. Perhaps it is also good to look into appropriateness of time, venue, arrangement and preparation for the dialogue.

Despite the many complaints, it is a good start leading to participatory planning and good local governance.

Kota Damansara Community Forest

Kota Damansara Community Forest is finally to stay after many rumours of earmarking for development. The Chief Minister of Selangor announced that the forest, home to many wildlife and 100 years old flora and fauna will be gazetted within 3 months. This announcement brought joys and tears to many residents and friends attended the Earth Day Carnival organised by Friends of Kota Damansara in collaboration with MBPJ last Sunday. Friends and Malaysian Nature Society deserve for their persistent in conserving the forest. It is never an easy task for collaborating with many NGOs and CBOs in making the forest the home for everyone. We saw the Girls Guild and Scout use the forest for training and leisure activities, then we saw anglers fishing there, we saw residents brought their families there for a walk. Hopefully in near future we will see the aboriginal people to greet us into the deeper side of the forest.

With land status confirmed now, it is time to move forward to manage the forest. It is also a challenge from the Chief Minister to request the Friends to look into a workable and collaborative management model for the forest. The community needs to convince others that community partnership and participation can manage and optimise the potential of our heritage instead of letting development to take place. To me, it is our commitment to the future generation.

Perhaps, this must be the greatest gift for Petaling Jaya and Kota Damansara residents in celebrating 2009 Earth Day.

Earth Day

I decided to write about Earth Day after 22.4.2009 as I wanted to assess the celebration held in conjunction with the Day. To my surprise there were events warranted for mentioning.

I attended a meeting hosted by Sepang Municipal Council to discuss Local Agenda 21 activities for Cyberjaya City. Malaysian Institute of Planners was invited to brief the meeting for the proposed tree planting campaign to offset the carbon footprint and representative from Alam Flora, being the waste management company was asked to enlighten the meeting on 3R concept. I commended the Council for having a meeting during the Day, although it might be coincident.

On the same afternoon, I attended the Earth Day Carnival Hi Tea Party hosted by Justlife at the Ikano Power Centre. The Party was so lively and innovative in which I have the opportunity to experience many things first time in my life or if not have been done long long time ago. We were served organic finger food with plate made from the leaf, symbolising the gesture back to nature and basic. We were entertained by popular DJ and singer with songs related to environment. We met environmental proponents from different fields such as organic farmers, Lohas believers, environmentalists, green entrepreneurs and others. I will say well done Justlife.

While celebrating Earth Day on 22.4 each year for public awareness raising is commendable, making it happens everyday is more meaningful. Until and unless people practice sustainable living and lifestyle, grandness of an event for the particular day is meaningless, be it Earth Hour, Earth Day, Water Day, World Environmental Day etc. Perhaps it is good to have everyday named after an environmental programme so that we have to do something good everyday.

Happy Earth Day. Well, it is not too late to start.

Waste

I was informed by Mr David Zon, operator of a waste management company last week that there are plenty of waste out there waiting to be converted to raw material instead of disposed the waste at the landfill. I agreed with him. We usually treat waste as something to throw away and will normally spend little time to think about using the so called waste for something useful. The most many people used to do is sending the waste to recycled centres. Similarly, the factories will engage waste contractors to dispose their waste and very few are concerned about the treatment of waste into some useful things. In order to correct this perception, perhaps more products using the waste as raw material should be highlighted and be given proper acknowledgement. The concept of waste is wealth should be supported by as many visible products as possible.

The Waste Converter should also be provided with incentives such as market penetration for them to make it as a viable business venture. Many converters whom have the passion of being environmental friendly cannot continue to do so simply because of lacking market and promotion skill. Perhaps it is time for environmentalists to get help to be green entrepreneurs. The setting up of Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water will help, i believe.

Social Integration

Social integration is easy to say been done. The Prime Minister of Malaysia advocate 1Malaysia concept by calling everyone to be united and working together for a common goal. The pre-requisite for this to realise is getting Malaysian from different ethnic, religions, socio-cultural background, social and education status to mingle with each others, to understand each others, to work, play and live together. Opportunities must be there to allow these from happening. We must create forum and platform for people with different walks to meet, chit-chat and understand each others first before getting them to discuss common issues and solutions.

Thereby, using the festive season celebration we have is considering the best platform we have. When Malay is celebrating the Raya Open House, others can make themselves be presence, similarly others can patronise our friends during the Chinese New Year, Thaipusam, Deepavali, Christmas and other celebration. It is the best time for creating mutual understanding and bargaining for privileges as all are having festive and relax mood.

Social integration will become a lip service if we do not act but mere talking. Everyone is obliged of initiating a first move towards social integration. For example, try to understand others' celebration, respect others for their right in celebrating their festival and to participate, if invited. While this might not happen over night as more education efforts need to be done to erase any doubt, if any. I am optimistic now after witnessing what happened last Sunday night.
I saw people with different ethnic and religion background attending the Easter Celebration Concert. The attendees enjoyed the songs rendered by popular artists such as Jacelyn Victor, Suwito and Patrick Leong.

I personally hope that concerts or events with this magnitude and public presence will continue. Although a small step, but it is definitely a right step towards greater social integration.

Catch 22@PJ: Effective Marketing and Sensitivity

Nowadays, raising public awareness is a difficult task as people are distracting by many other means of publicity and promotion. In order to get attention from general public for a particular cause is a pre-requisite for public awareness raising. It is no point of running a public awareness campaign if we are unable to attract the interest of them first. Many public campaigns failed due to the dullness of the marketing strategies. While developing an innovative publicity strategy is a must, some time the content of the visual aids can cause some disturbance. For example, we might advocate some value by putting a visual that cause uneasiness to some quarters, and this might attract critics although it is for a good intention.

In raising public awareness on challenges facing the people with disabilities, numerous attractive slogans and visual aids have been used to attract the public attention. While the impact was great, the negative responses from some quarters were equally big. For example, placing the notice board with the phrase of "Since you are occupying my car park lot, please bring along my disabilities with you" at the dedicated car park lot for disabled people raised some objections whom saying that it is tantamount to cursing people. Another incidence of getting able guests to sit on the wheelchair was criticised too for being disrespectful to the guests. It is understood that while some people are sensitive due to superlative believe, the people with disabilities themselves felt nothing wrong about this.

We are in the Catch 22 situation now. While it is important to get message across, careful considerations on sensitivity has to be observed as well. We must accept that various stakeholders have different value and believe, and hence accommodating to as many of them is crucial or else public awareness campaign can be failed miserably. Having said this, if a visual aid is fundamentally needed, then it is the duty of project proponents to educate and to convince the objectors on the necessity of having such. Here, consultation is important.

New Business

I attended a meeting last week and met with a person with the designation of manager for new business. I was wondering what this post entailed and managed to talk to him on his portfolio. He mentioned that any businesses in relation to sustainable development or technology advancement with different appearance from the existing business model is considered new business. For example, application of technologies or methods in converting the waste into wealth is a business, a BIG business. While many businesses now are getting more competitive as many newcomers are jumping into the bandwagon, the new business with blue ocean concept might be worth looking at, especially during the economic crisis now.

Businesses in making our Earth to survive and our cities are greener and cleaner, in improving the efficiency of services delivery, in prolonging humans life and in better health are some of the examples. People ask for speed as the world is more competitive now; People require better health condition as they lifespan is longer now; People demand quality living environment as rubbish causes a lot of health haphazard.

For new business to take off and sustain, obviously, we need to have new people with new thinking, some time bold one.

Planners

I was elected the Honorary Secretary for the Malaysian Institute of Planners (MIP) during the AGM last Saturday. MIP is the umbrella body for the town planners in Malaysia. While safeguarding the interest of members is our priority, protecting the interest of community becomes our top concerns. The Institute is revisiting these priorities.

Nowadays, whenever a disaster happened, people will point the fingers to town planners. For example, landslide in Ulu Kelang, flooding in city centre of Kuala Lumpur, traffic congestion, high rise construction etc. While undoubtedly planners play an important role in urban development, the negative impacts of development such as inefficiency of services, lack of facilities, incompatible of activities are contributing by multiple factors. These include the capacity problem such as provision of infrastructure and competency, cooperation of the users, coordination amongst stakeholders etc. Thereby, blaming planners alone for cities failure is uncalled for.

Having said this, planners have crucial role, at least to minimise these failures. Realising this, MIP organised the workshop to chart the future road map for the Institute and Planners a day prior to the AGM. It was acknowledged that planning is facing many key challenges due to globalisation and liberalisation, climate change, rapid urbanisation process and demographic change. Planners have no choice, but to embrace the challenges with the acquisition of new skills and knowledge. Many of the planners agreed that knowledge and competency are 2 main challenges for the planners to improve their skills and integrity. For example, we have to be good in responding to the market demand, in solving multiple issues, in translating the aspirations of the people into plans, in planning with economic sense, keeping abreast on other dimensions of development and mediating the space.

The Planners have also called upon the Institute to play a crucial role in uniting the planning fraternity by getting everyone working together. In order to make ourselves known to the community, MIP should also engage the communities and other stakeholders more often so that we are seen to be People-Oriented and Community-First or else MIP will never have the chance to establish itself in the heart and mind of the people. This will ultimately helping the Institute to promote the profession as well as the MIP.

While being elected as the Honorary Secretary is an honour, the responsibility is equally honourable. I am determined to work hard contributing to the image enhancement for the Institute and also the profession.

Effective Media Conference Organising

Media conference is an excellent opportunity to communicate with the media and to market sustainable initiatives to the stakeholders at large. While press coverage opportunity is there to grab, it is of no help if proper planning on organizing a media conference is not forthcoming. Throughout my years of experience in attending media conference either for event announcement or held after an event, media although in full attendance is selective in reporting the happenings. At times, a proper event is becoming a by-product of other side events. For example, write up on a tree planting event might be mentioned in passing with heading focusing on the public objection for open space encroachment as the news piece. Hence, marketing the media conference and getting attention is important and doing it right and effectively is an art of communication.

So, the question is how to go about it? There are 9 basic steps, namely first setting the right time and venue, secondly preparing the press kit with precise and helpful information, thirdly to choose a firm and knowledgeable chairman or perhaps the one with charisma, fourthly to anticipate problems and preempt an answer, if possible. This followed with media invitation in which right personnel with good credentials should be targeted. Sixthly get the chairman to make a precise and forceful opening statement during the media conference as this will interest the audience to follow through. Please be reminded too to be assertive with the journalists as effective two ways communication is pre-requisite for a lively conference. Also be prepared for further interviews and finally close the conference at appropriate time, no necessary to prolong the conference for unnecessary delay.

For observing the above, treating every media conference organizing a new challenge is a way forward. MBPJ as the front line authority facing with the public has to leverage on opportunity provided by media conference to communicate well with the public so that information is disseminated and corresponded effectively, rightly and timely. Perhaps in future media conference organizing with more professionalism is required or else we might be wasting our effort in organising a fruitful less media conference continually .

Change

Change is inevitable. Change is unavoidable. Change is for either better or worse.

With many stakeholders talk about Local Agenda 21 since middle of year 2008, I have much hope that changes are forthcoming.

Changes for new approaches in local governance, changes for smarter partnership, changes for more community sustainable initiatives took place on the ground, changes for greater transparency and accountability, changes for having a better quality of life and environment. After a year I saw the light albeit a bright one.

The most important, yet the most difficult change is people's mind set. I saw it remained unchanged, or if yes too little. Changes can only be done if people have no choice but to change for survival or force to. People is too complacent and resist for changes as the uncertainty might disrupt their normal way of life or working. Thereby, to institute a change, perhaps radical actions have to be taken or else the progressive little changes might have to reverse back after a while. For an organisation with many liabilities and branding problem, radical changes are the only solution to wake people up.

It is a matter of choice for the leadership. An effective leader with gut and vision will definitely do this. The line of separation between the leader and manager is always the leadership quality. A Leader embraces changes without fear and favour.

I presume we have a lot to learn.

MASTER for LA21

Anyone aspires to effectively implement the Local Agenda 21 has to acquire the MASTER skill. MASTER means

1. Meeting the stakeholders. Efforts to identify and engage relevant people is important as human is the main contributing factor towards the success of sustainable development programmes.
2. Asking questions in which analysing the SWOT of stakeholders and issues will ensure that strategic actions taken are of bottom line basis. Followed by searching for pragmatic and workable solutions together with the stakeholders. Strategic actions encompass the programs, implementers, time frame, indicators and allocation of resources should be in place.
3. Selling the strategic plan is contributing to the success of Local Agenda 21. Communicating and marketing actions or programmes that flavour to the desire of target groups will ensure that planned actions have better chances for implementation. Thereby, creative selling and marketing via innovative communication, publicity, promotion and marketing strategies are essential.
4. Tackle objections, if any from other stakeholders. No plan is perfect and no plan is agreeable to everyone. LA 21 process tends to have objections from quarters who are not happy. For implementation to cover wider groups of people and area, it is good to have marketing and communication strategies to get rid, if not to minimise the chances of objections.
5. Empower the stakeholders especially the key personnel to act proactively. At time supports in the form of resources can be of help to motivate stakeholders to implement initiatives closer to their heart.
6. Reward the outstanding initiatives and leaders with excellent performance. Never stingy of recognising and reward the stakeholders appropriately who have helped in the sustainable development process, big or small. If a person who have done well but not to be rewarded, it is tantamount to marginalisation and biasness. Once, this perception is formed, it is killing the spirit of Local Agenda 21.

To me, if a Local Agenda 21 Officer or those in the sustainable development fraternity is equipped with MASTER skill, the prospect for the effective implementation of Local Agenda 21 is brighter. Perhaps it is time to send them for MASTER course now.

Catch 22@PJ: Doing the right thing wrongly

I was informed recently that the water quality of Bukt Gasing dropped from Standard II A or B to Standard III or IV. It was suspected that the water quality deterioration was due to the drain construction at the hill top. While i understood that the drain was constructed to facilitate better run off and water flow from within the hill and residential area, the little good gesture has affected the natural water system of Bukit Gasing. It is a clear showcase of doing the right thing wrongly. Very often we want to do good but do not know how to go about it, and even we have done it, it might be with the wrong tool or method.

Perhaps the capacity of MBPJ staff on environmental sustainability can be further improved. It is important to get people to understand that engineering solutions might be helpful in solving the urban infrastructure and human problem, it might however affect the natural environmental quality. We have to weight and appreciate the importance of nature to us. We have to extra careful when dealing with the environment. A decision that we all think is logical and simple might be haphazard to the environment, both short and long term. We might not have the opportunity to witness the impact of our decision, but if we do we might be regretted for what we have done unintentionally. For example, cutting down a tree with 0.8 metre diameter for road expansion purpose although there is other option, conveniently taking the drain and river as waste carrier, filling up the retention pond for development purpose, letting the running pipe to have free flow, procuring non recyclable stationary, encouraging the use of plastic bags and etc.

We are in the Catch 22 situation now. Unless people understand the environment and start evaluating their decisions based on sustainability performance, we will continue disturbing the environment as we do now. We have to embark on environmental education to build up people's awareness, knowledge, attitude and skill or else "NO CHANGE", business as usual.

Goes Green

The buzz word for businesses nowadays is to go green. Every business aspires CSR friendly is promoting GREEN, either through action or reflected from the corporate vision statement. However, at times CSR initiative turns out to be another PR exercise. What went wrong? It is simply due to capacity problem.

It is a challenge to differentiate the Not So Green (PR exercise), Normal Green (CSR initiative) or Very Green (A culture) of an establishment. It has no standard guidance as well. It is very much up to the public perception of what establishment has done. Public has own value judgement on the Green Performance of an establishment, and with better information and knowledge, the criteria for judgement is getting higher and higher now. Hence, the terminology of Goes Green is also subjected to stringent evaluation.

The common saying of "Being green can be profitable" is vindicated with some success stories. Establishments like The Body Shop, Ikea, The Natural Conservatory, Ecofuture have shown that money making is possible even the green operations are applied.

So, the question is how and where to start especially for the SMEs? We can buy energy efficiency products, use green perishables, save water when possible, reduce paper and stationery usage, reduce resources consumption in every possible way and if not possible then to recycle every recyclable items, procure reused items, use energy saving appliances, unplug unnecessary electronics, commuting emissions, reduce travelling and using more ICT assisted business tools, plan out logistics and travelling plan and more importantly getting the involvement of the employees and bosses. Total participation and value believe up hold by everyone is critical success factor.

It is important to at least started with the above or else the slogan of Goes Green will remain as a lip service. This is the major internal enemy of sustainable development movement. While it is good to have many businesses openly calling for going green, it is also danger of having many NATO (No Action Talk Only) around.

April Fool

I must be a fool to believe that...

• Sustainable development is achievable
• Smart partnership is attainable
• Equality is practical
• Participatory planning is workable
• Social cohesion is visible
• Environmental sustainability is reachable

Without

• Full understanding and shared vision about sustainable development
• Genuine political and management will
• Willingness to share
• Sincerity and respectful
• High tolerance as well as give and take attitude
• Full commitment towards Mother Nature

We might come across with people branding the recyclers as "rubbish man", the volunteer as people trying to "botek" the authority or taking advantage, the philanthropies as people with hidden motives, the outspoken champion for sustainable environment as hypocrite, the constant critics as people anti establishment. While there are people tend to do something with their prioritised interest, it is not ethical to put everyone in the same shore. I believe we have many people out there prepare to serve and to contribute wholeheartedly and with commitment. It is time to mobilise everyone after the Earth Hour, and not to fool around about our environment after the Day.

I do not mind to be a fool if the above are achieved. Happy April Fool.