LOCAL AGENDA 21: MALAYSIA

INTRODUCTION

Local Agenda 21 (LA21) is a programme to forge partnership between Local Authority, private
sector and the local communities that serve to work together, to plan and care for their
surroundings towards sustainable development. The programme is based on Agenda 21 which is
global action plan towards development for 21st Century resulting from Earth Summit at Rio De
Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992.

THE OBJECTIVES OF LOCAL AGENDA 21 PROGRAMME

1. To expose the local community and private sectors to the sustainable development issues.
2. To clarify the roles of sustainable development are our responsibility.
3. To conclude that the strategies and LA21 action plans are based on local sustainable
development issues.
4. To implement the LA21 action plan in the form of sustainable development projects.

LOCAL AGENDA 21 IN MALAYSIA

The pilot programme aims at promoting sustainable development at the local level by creating
and strengthening participation between local authorities, local communities and the private
sector. Four councils were selected from both the urban and rural sector:

Urban Sector
Petaling Jaya Muncipal Council,
Miri Municipal Council
Kuantan Municipal Council.

Rural Sector
Krian District Council

ANALYSING MALAYSIA LA 21

There are 5 elements in Malaysia LA21 project:

1. Formation of Partnership
2. Community based Issues Analysis
3. Action Plan
4. Implementation and monitoring
5. Evaluation & feed back
CHALLEGES IMPLEMENTING LA 21 IN MALAYSIA

This is the observation of Hardev Singh from Universiti Teknologi Mara Melaka:

1. The lack of private sector participation

- Afraid of financial contribution
- Pressures on business such as profitability, health and safety, and product quality.

2. The missing linkage: The need to strengthen the NGOS and CBOS in LA21
- Unclear and vague policy of the participation of NGOs in sustainable development
activities
- Over involvement of certain groups such as the environmental groups and
underrepresentation of certain groups.
- Community based organizations (such as Residents Associations) have a restricted
membership and also lack of funding.

3. Financing LA21
- Budget deficits and have difficulties to commit themselves to long term sustainable
development projects.
- Development projects do not provide immediate economic returns.

4. Inter-agency Relationships
- Lack of a holistic approach to implementing LA21 within the councils. (e.g.: Most of
the LA21 processes are linked to the departments of planning within the council)
- Such practice lead to a serious misunderstanding of Agenda 21 and its structural
demands.

Other studies had found that most failure in projects initiated by government either it at the
federal or local government are linked to their limited capacities or disinterest to meet the
objectives. According to Mariana Mohamed Osman, Syarifah Norazizan Syed A Rashid, Nobaya
Ahmad (2008) from University Putra Malaysia, the failure is due to 4 factors:

1.Unwillingness to act appropriately (for political reasons or for lack of profit, no

democratic pressures, no accountability to population, no developmental state, national or
state government allocating city or municipal or district government’s responsibility without
necessary powers, and resources).

2.Inability to act (weak, lack of funding and professional competence, hampered by

inappropriate legal, regulatory and financial framework)

3.Inefficiency (poor or weak infrastructure and service provision)

4.Official standards are unrealistic based on level of investment, funding and other
resources. (staffs and capacity building)
CONCLUSION

The success and impact of LA21 seems to be relying on the work of a few key dedicated people
either in the councils or members of the public, rather than a widespread and deep commitment
from every stakeholder. LA 21 also suffers from the weakness of local councils. So, without a
strengthening of the local government, it is likely that implementation of LA21 will continue to
fail to deliver it aspirations (Hardev, 2008).

REFERENCES

1. Mariana Mohamed Osman, Syarifah Norazizan Syed A Rashid, Nobaya Ahmad. 2008.
“LOCAL AGENDA 21 IN MALAYSIA: ISSUES AND PROBLEM FACED BY THE
STAKEHOLDER IN THE PARTICIPATION PROCESS” presented in Ecocity World Summit
2008 Proceedings.

2. Hardev Singh. 2008. “DEVELOPMENT THROUGH DECENTRALISATION AND GOOD

GOVERNANCE: THE CHINA AND MALAYSIAN EXPERIENCES IN IMPLEMENTING
LOCAL AGENDA 21” presented in Facing the China Challenge International Conference, 2
- 3 December 2008.