'Sandiwara' or opportunity for public to have their say?

 

"Town hall meetings, also referred to as town halls or town hall forums, an expression that originates mainly from North America, are a way for local and national politicians to meet with their constituents either to hear from them on topics of interest or to discuss specific upcoming legislation or regulation." - Wikipedia

Perhaps, the first-ever town hall meeting held in the country was on Nov 14, 2008. It was organised by the Petaling Jaya City Council at its premises to get views to control the proliferation of outdoor billboards in the city.

Unlike the previous administration which had implemented policies and alienated tracts of land to cronies secretly, the then freshly-minted Pakatan Rakyat government was on a mission to promote transparency and accountability. Living up to its promises of taking everyone’s views into account, it gave everyone a chance to voice their opinions.

All stakeholders – industry stalwarts, the administration, the politicians, and the public shared their views and concerns. A healthy discussion took place on the issue of billboards (both licenced and unlicensed) which subsequently resulted in the promulgation of guidelines for the outdoor advertising industry.

(For the record, the guidelines have since been thrown out of the window and it is back to the bad old days when “donations” ruled the roost.)

It was not to be the last town hall meeting in Selangor. Many followed but in many cases, such meetings were meant as a formality to satisfy detractors and critics. Despite strong opposition to the proposals, certain agencies went ahead and gave their approvals to projects.

Just when we thought the pre-2008 “dirty tricks department” in the Selangor government had been made extinct and buried, it appears that it has been resuscitated to serve specific purposes for specific people without being seen to be clandestinely bending the laws.

On Tuesday, another town hall meeting is scheduled to take place at the Amverton Cove Resort in Carey Island. The venue itself gives the impression that it was specifically selected to prevent the mass participation of stakeholders. Unless you drive and use Waze or Google Maps, you will be unable to get to this place which is off the beaten track along the Klang-Banting trunk road.

There is no public transport to this place. Anyone concerned will have to find their way to Banting and the best bet would be to jump on a bus to Klang and get off in the township of Teluk Panglima Garang. Taxis rarely ply the route and luck must be on your side to get a lift from one of the estate workers who work on the island to get there.

These sentiments were echoed by Global Environment Centre (GEC) director Faizal Parish who said: “The venue is located outside of the sub-district Mukim Tanjung 12, which is about one hour away from the forest reserve with very limited transportation options.”

Sham meeting?

The meeting will be chaired by Selangor Environment, Green Technology and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman Hee Loy Sian, who, of course, will be chauffeured to the venue in his official car. The meeting starts at 8am and he must leave his office an hour earlier to be on time. However, what about the ordinary folk? How do they get there? What time do they have to leave their abodes for a trek to the main road for public transport?

The subject of the discussion will be the de-gazetting of 971 hectares (2,400 acres) of forest reserve to make way for mixed development. The proposal has got the stakeholders – environmentalists, the Orang Asli community, and the public – up in arms over the destruction of such a humongous area of pristine greenery to make way for a cluster of concrete jungles.

To degazette a forest reserve in Selangor, an objection process must be preceded by a formal inquiry process under the National Forestry Act 1984 and Public Inquiry (Selangor) Rules 2014 to view and consider all the stakeholders’ opinions.

The Coalition for the Protection of Selangor’s Forests said its member organisations only began receiving the invitation letters to the town hall session by Selangor Forestry Department last Wednesday (Sept 23). This, they claim, is too short a time to prepare for the meeting. Other stakeholders, especially the Orang Asli community, have yet to receive notifications or letters to attend the meeting.

Is this town hall meeting a sham meeting where only the well-heeled or the potential beneficiaries of the land for mixed development will attend? Does it not smack of a covert attempt to prevent stakeholders from presenting their views?

Faizal said this defeats the purpose of organising a public hearing when attending it is made difficult for the affected communites, particularly the local Orang Asli Temuan communities, from attending the town hall process.

Couldn’t Hee have directed the department to hold the meeting in a public place like the community hall in Banting or the offices of the Hulu Langat District Council? Or is this all a sandiwara to merely to fulfil the requirements of the law when the decision has already been made to de-gazette?

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R NADESWARAN hopes good sense will prevail and that the meeting is deferred and a people-friendly venue is selected. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com - Mkini

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.