Community Forums and News in Subang Jaya
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CONTACT: Dr John Postill
University of Bremen (Germany)
Email: jpostill@usa.net
Title: Subang Jaya e-Community Portal: Community Forums and News
Background Information
Location: Subang Jaya (Malaysia)
URL: http://usj.com.my
Primary Sponsor: Self-funded by residents of Subang Jaya
Project Start Date: 26/10/1999
Project End Date: Ongoing
Executive Summary
In 1999, residents of Subang Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia created The Subang Jaya e-Community Portal. This self-funded portal has successfully fostered grassroots democracy, community-building and better local governance. The project arose out of the gulf between the high expectations of new Subang Jaya residents prior to moving to this award-winning ‘model township’ and the daily realities of traffic jams, clogged drains, unsafe playgrounds and frequent burglaries. Local politicians are hearing the message and adapting their communication strategies.
The online forums have become the prime public forums in this suburb of 500,000 residents. This online environment encourages the participation of citizens in decisions that affect local governance and community services. An example of the portal's success in working with local media and influence on local decisions was reflected in an October 2004 discussion on the desire for a police station in the area rather than a food court. The flexible system of user-initiated discussion threads, or topics, allows for a dynamic 'bazaar' of ideas and information on a vast range of local issues. As of 28 January 2005, the portal boasted 4,847 members and its forums had generated 3,055 threads and 32,963 posts in just over five years. Website: http://usj.com.my
Project Rationale and Objectives
The project arose in 1999 out of the gulf between the high expectations of new Subang Jaya residents prior to moving to this award-winning ‘model township’ and the daily realities of traffic jams, clogged drains, unsafe playgrounds, frequent burglaries, etc. The project founders felt that poor local governance and a chronic democratic deficit (local authorities in Malaysia are unelected) were at the root of the township's everyday problems.
The project aimed to:
- Provide township residents with an electronic ‘community hall’
- Foster grassroots democracy, including freedom of speech
- Promote an ICT- and knowledge-based society
What was delivered?
The Portal has achieved its three main goals. First, it provides residents with an electronic ‘community hall’ of extraordinary vibrancy and popularity at http://usj.com.my. The online forums have become the prime public forums in this township of 500,000 on questions of local governance, community services and lifestyle. The flexible system of user-initiated discussion threads, or topics, allows for a dynamic 'bazaar' of ideas and information on a vast range of local issues. As of 28 January 2005, the portal boasted 4,847 members and its forums had generated 3,055 threads and 32,963 posts in just over five years*. The record for the largest number of users online at any one time was set at 532 people on 8 January 2005. Participants have literally woven a sense of community out of thousands of intertwined threads.
Second, the portal has fostered grassroots democracy by not only giving residents a voice, but also in allowing citizens to participate in the local government's agenda. A recent example was the portal’s key role in an October 2004 demonstration demanding the construction of a police station. The campaign, which was amply covered by Malaysia’s mainstream media, successfully blocked the construction of a food court and led the federal authorities to commit themselves to building a police station in its stead.
Third, the portal has promoted Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and a knowledge-based society by tangibly demonstrating the potential social and political benefits of new digital technologies to residents, municipal council staff, politicians and ICT policy-makers.
N.B. This figure is likely to be an underestimate as the portal was attacked by a computer ‘cracker’ in September 2004 and not all archives had been recovered at the time of writing this report. In August 2004, prior to the cracker’s attack, the author recorded 3,500 threads and over 26,000 posts in the main forum alone.
Communication Activity
The project was promoted to residents, councillors, local politicians and private firms through formal meetings, informal gatherings, word of mouth, email, award ceremonies, and press releases and interviews.
Successes
In addition to the three main goals discussed above, this ongoing project has created other benefits for local governance and democracy in Subang Jaya. These include:
- A close working relationship between community leaders and the elected state assemblyman, who is also an influential councillor. The assemblyman maintains his own website through which he communicates with residents publicly: http://hwabeng.org.my
- A municipal council that is well informed about issues concerning local residents, as key staff members regularly visit the portal
- A growing sense of rootedness and community among regular portal users; this community-building process now includes regular offline gatherings on a monthly basis
- A high political, academic and media profile for the township nationwide and even internationally; in the long run, this can be expected to attract socially innovative residents, firms and public initiatives.
Benefits to Citizens
The project allowed concerned residents to become actively engaged in local governance by providing a supportive environment for constructive criticism of, and suggestions to, the local authorities. This online environment encourages the participation of residents in decisions that affect their locality. These views may not have always had a direct impact on local government decisions, but together they have contributed to the emergence of a local public sphere that the municipal council cannot afford to ignore. Additionally, by pooling their local knowledge, residents were able to make well-informed decisions regarding council rates, building permissions, unkempt public parks, etc. All this is has set an example for citizens and local authorities across Malaysia.
Benefits to Authority
The portal’s rationale and activities are fully in line with the authorities’ Local Agenda 21 vision, which seeks to achieve sustainable development across the township. It is highly compatible with the municipal council’s introduction in 2001 of an innovative network of residents’ committees (JKP) aimed at bridging the decision-making gap between governing and governed. Some influential residents are, in fact, active in both the independent portal and the council’s residents’ commitees.
The portal helps to fulfill the federal government’s long-term vision of a fully developed, knowledge-based Malaysia by 2020. Internationally, it demonstrates the federal government’s commitment to foreign ICT investors to allow freedom of expression on the internet. Domestically, by providing a role-model of grassroots democracy for localities across the country, it raises the profile of Subang Jaya and its local authorities. At the same time, this high profile provides a check on the municipal council’s decisions and pressures it towards greater accountability and transparency. Thus, in his widely read review of local governance in Malaysia published in December 2004, the Penang-based scholar Professor Goh Ban Lee praised the Subang Jaya municipal council for its forward-looking approach to governance. Lee also criticized the lack of transparency regarding the police station incident described earlier.
Benefits to Councillors
By improving the local knowledge of councillors, these public servants are in a better position to question and influence local policies. The fast delivery of high-quality information through the portal allows councillors to follow the progress of projects, particularly as they are perceived by their intended beneficiaries: the residents and rate-payers. In theory, this could help them hold the executives accountable, although in reality, the entrenched practice of appointing councillors on the basis of ethnic patronage prohibits this from happening.
Limitations
The Subang Jaya e-Community Portal's target audience could have been more broad, particularly in reaching out to low-income groups, young people, foreign immigrants and to the Malay population (according to official figures, the population of Subang Jaya is 70% ethnic Chinese). At present, virtually all postings and community reports are in English rather than Malay. The use of Malay alongside English, the everyday language of the middle classes, could have been encouraged on the forum.
The project was never conceived as a technological fix to local governance problems. Instead, its initiators fostered its gradual, organic growth. From this perspective, the first five years have been a resounding success. The founders’ lack of success in obtaining public funding was undoubtedly an early setback, but it may also have been a blessing in disguise, for it helped to promote the portal as an independent initiative representing the interests of local residents. This independence came at a cost, as it subsequently became more difficult for portal participants to cooperate with the federal government and local authorities.
The main obstacle hindering the progress of the e-Community Portal has been a lack of clarity over the forum’s governance. Two factions have emerged in this regard. While the forum’s administrators favour the strict adherence to explicit rules of online conduct or 'netiquette,' an influential group of veteran forum participants regard these rules as constricting the free flow of ideas and information. The dispute remains unresolved.
Evaluation
The project has been assessed using qualitative measures, both online and offline. This assessment follows a 15-month long fieldwork study, part of a 3-year anthropological study with colleagues in four European countries funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Fieldwork was based on participant observation, semi-structured interviews and online archival research. A historical benchmark was used: the researcher compared and contrasted local governance in Subang Jaya in mid-1999, before the project was launched, with that in January 2005.
[RSe Consulting: Could you please provide a brief summary of the results of these qualitative studies?]
Lessons learnt
The usability of the two main products of the project, the online forum and community reporting, could be increased through greater involvement of residents, politicians, municipal staff, and/or the private sector. This is particularly relevant for community reporting, which has suffered from a lack of volunteers since its inception.
What could happen next?
With over five years sustained experience, the Subang Jaya e-Community Portal model is gaining attention in open source and citizen journalism circles. It is unknown to what extent Maintaining a local grassroots organization is a significant undertaking. Continued growth in participation will be a significant sign of success.
Additional information and sources
Detailed budget: NA
Project sponsors: Self-funded by residents of Subang Jaya
Stakeholders: Residents, local council and businesses
Further Information:
About USJ: http://www.usj.com.my/aboutus.php3
Contact:
Jeff Ooi, Portal founder and manager, jeffooi@usj.com.my
Author:
Dr John Postill, University of Bremen (Germany), jpostill@usa.net 北京印刷不干胶印刷手提袋印刷画册印刷分水器四合院 北京四合院翻译公司北京翻译公司 英语翻译 北京纸箱厂神墓