Bottom-up approach enables govt to be closer to community – Academician
MIRI: The development of a country depends much on the good relationship between the government and the community.
According to dean of Professional Graduate School of Meiji University in Japan Prof Makoto Nagahata, the community has changed a lot since the old days, as many people today are busy fulfilling the commitments in their lives.
“In our rapidly- changing globalised society, it is hard to depend only on the government to solve all the issues. Obviously, it also takes the strength of the community to help solve social issues,” he shared with participants of a talk on ‘Effective Community Engagement’ here yesterday.
Makoto observed that as the traditional community ties begin to grow loose, it results in people growing apart from one another.
“As such, this lessens their trust in one another and also in the government. Perhaps, it’s a crucial time for the government to opt for a ‘collaborative bottomup approach’ instead of the ‘centralised top-down approach’.
“The collaborative bottomup approach means that the government approaches the community by engaging them in friendly dialogues, as a way (for government) to understand them better. This is what we call ‘community facilitation’ – one that enables us to facilitate the initiatives by members of the community,” he said.
Makoto then shared his experience in a project at Bali Barat National Park, which he described as a very good example of community facilitation.
“The initial situation at the national park was that the community people and the authority did not trust each other, but both parties needed a solution to protect the biodiversity there. The national park needed a good strategy to (preserve) the natural heritage, while the people of Sumber Klampok (a village at Bali Barat National Park) needed to survive.
“Despite the challenges, the national park personnel decided to take a step back and embark on building a partnership with the community, listening to their stories and challenges, and setting up proactive informal dialogues. The result was fascinating – it had enabled both parties to trust and cooperate with each other towards a solution,” he related.
Makoto believed that a similar method could be applied here.
“Many a time, collaboration begins with listening, which is far more important than talking promises. Through dialogues, we can find out common goals and suitable ways to cooperate,” said the professor, who has extensive experience in community development and alleviation of poverty, including comprehensive community development project planning and operations in Bangladesh and Indonesia.
The luncheon talk was a joint event by Razak School of Government ( RSOG) and Miri City Council (MCC).
Miri Mayor Adam Yii, his deputy Julaihi Mohamad and MCC secretary Mohamad Junaidi Mohidin; RSOG general manager of corporate services Azham Zainal Abidin and its director of academics and research Abdullah Hasan; as well as dean of Graduate School of Governance Studies of Meiji University Prof Hiroo Ichikawa were among the distinguished guests.