Community participation vital in regional autonomy

Peter de Young, Public Relations Consultant, Jakarta

The informative summary of the potential problems associated with the planned introduction of regional autonomy by Gustaf Tamo Mbapa (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 21) touches on two very important points: The need for people in communities to become involved in decision-making that affects their areas; and any attempt to introduce regional autonomy without community involvement could engender frustration and perhaps, future conflict.

With the advent of regional autonomy, administrators will have greater authority over development within their areas but the potential increase in power also carries a commensurate increase in responsibility towards local communities.

Renovating schools, health centers and other community facilities are vitally important developments offering a better quality of life for any local community and impact directly on national efforts towards alleviating poverty in Indonesia.

These developments provide administrators with a major opportunity to engage in meaningful dialog with local stakeholders and assist in nurturing a sense of ownership and empowerment within the community.

Administrators should also realize that local communities invariably have a better appreciation of needs and problems within their own communities and therefore should be involved directly in the decision-making processes that require inventive, local solutions.

Allowing stakeholders to actively participate in local decision-making processes is an important element towards building local capacity for good governance.

But the key to developing community participation requires administrators and planners to provide local communities with information on proposed developments, to establish a reasonable level of public awareness about the objectives of the planned project activity.

Supplying information on planned developments to stakeholders will precipitate discussion and allow opinions and concerns to be aired within the community.

Details of the proposed projects should be presented at a public meeting in the targeted area after all sections of the affected community have been encouraged to attend and actively participate in the discussions.

Potential contractors should also be invited to attend any public presentation to allow the community to obtain some indication as to their capacity to successfully implement the proposed project.

A contractor, after being confronted with an activated and informed community in a public forum, is less likely to engage in practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism, especially through the realization of the potential social and economic backlash that could be aimed at the contractor's company by the community.

Administrators in provincial areas need to develop working coalitions with communities to attract the support of these primary stakeholders and to encourage more local input in the policy-making processes. Developing communications and gaining support of local communities are integral elements in any public awareness campaign.

Several government bodies have successfully employed public awareness strategies to reach out to communities and attract support for national campaigns.

For instance, the Ministry of Health has utilized social marketing and public awareness techniques to attract the involvement of targeted groups towards supporting national vaccination programs for TB and Polio diseases.

Public awareness and social marketing techniques depend on harnessing the interest and participation of individuals and groups within a community. Again, dissemination of transparent information to stakeholders is crucial to allow them to express their real needs.

A proposal for road rehabilitation may be deemed a priority amongst local administrators and planners but the renovation of a run-down school facility may be the real need for the community.

Once consensus is reached on the priority for the community, planners can move with confidence to the design stage of a proposed development carrying the assurance that the project has broad community support.

The alternative would be for the development project to be imposed on the community using a non-participatory, "top-down" approach that has only marginal support of the affected community.

Working with local communities, as opposed to imposing non- participatory systems for implementing projects, will enhance the existing cohesion and solidarity in most communities.

A partnership or coalition involving a participatory approach, will reinforce and extend the emerging sense of local ownership and empowerment that is continually being emphasized by national leaders as a necessary element of community behavior in the reformasi era.

While administrators and planners may find the initial stages of a public awareness campaign daunting and a little tiresome, consulting local stakeholders will tend to build a higher level of confidence and trust, if not real appreciation, within the community.

Establishing a transparent, working relationship with the community should also ease the passage of agreement for local developments through regional administrative systems and representative councils, particularly with reliance on the public support of the community.

Another key component in achieving success in a public awareness strategy hinges on enlisting the support of local media. Some administrators have good working relationships with local media but there is a need for those relationships to extend to community groups to allow for balanced discussion of any proposed development.

A few community groups have already demonstrated that they are adept in making successful approaches to national and local media outlets to promote their views about planned developments.

Failure by administrators to implement an effective public awareness strategy and obtain general support for proposed developments could activate affected communities to mobilize sympathetic media to publicly air their contrary views and concerns about the intended project. But public confrontation through the use of media erodes the positive growth of a working coalition between administrators and stakeholders and damages the internal cohesion and solidarity of the community.

The most effective public awareness strategy usually involves several of the media vehicles combined in an integrated campaign, including radio, newspapers, television as well as public forums.

Through an integrated campaign, information on proposed developments can be channeled to targeted communities to initiate discussion and attract support, but also to erode any doubts and uncertainties that may be lingering amongst stakeholders.

Unless administrators and planners recognize the need to provide communities with information on proposed developments and are prepared to receive and evaluate reasonable feedback from stakeholders, meaningful participation might not continue to develop within local communities.

Without the necessary participation of stakeholders in decision-making processes that affect the quality of life in their communities, frustration and negativity will begin to grow.

Nurturing participation does require administrators and planners to change their decision-making style towards a greater involvement of local stakeholders. Embracing change often produces conflicting pressures but through an effective public awareness strategy, these pressures can be guided towards providing creative and constructive solutions to local problems.

From recent experience, participation is alive and well in many local communities in Indonesia, but it remains the responsibility of local administrators and planners to ensure that the prevailing spirit of participation is preserved and maintained for the future.