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

COMMENT | "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 Harapan 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 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 ...