3.1 Sustainable Development in Malaysia

Malaysia such as many other developing countries faces conflict between economic growth and conservation of environment [8]. However, it has recognized the concept of sustainable development and has embedded this concept in its policies, vision, mission, and plans [9]. Malaysia is also very active in international sustainability activities, which have been reflected by its participation in the 13th session of the commission on sustainable development in New York in 2005 [9]. Malaysia has also incorporated the principal of Agenda 21 as one of the important sustainable development documents in its planning process [8]. The following sections will explore some of the initiatives of sustainable development …show more content…
Through LA21, local communities can participate to identify the local issues of sustainable development and finally develop appropriate action plans to address issues that arise. In Malaysia, the LA21 program was started in 2000 involving four local authorities as a pilot project and its now expand to other Local Authority. However, the implementations of LA21 in Malaysia are still at an unsatisfactory level (3). This is because of a few factors that limit the involvement of stakeholders such as lack of trust between the parties involved, lack of commitment, lack of knowledge and awareness, lack of finance and staffing aspects to implement the LA21 (Mariana 2008, Hardev …show more content…
The authors argued that, it is important to identify who participates and who will be affected by the dictions made particularly by the professionals. Apart from that, Dola & Mijan (2006) also asserts that although the public is engaged in participatory design process it may not be a representation of the “public” itself. Dola & Mijan also argues that although public participation can be carried out through several strategies such as Focus Group Discussion (FGD) which involves the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), political groups, local representatives, village work committees (JKKK), professional groups, developers and business organizations, the questions still arises whether or not these groups are considered enough to comprehensively represent the whole community. This is also in line with the study by Yao (2006) which states that although mechanisms for public participation has been established, in practice the public may not be adequately represented. Moreover, in a study by Eccleston (2000) where the author found out that member of the public who attend public meetings tend to be more educated and technically sophisticated than the general public and usually have a vested interest in the outcome. It is therefore suitable to state that