Participatory Planning Process for Community Resettlements Program

The implementation of the publicity approach is important for the better planning and fulfilment of community needs. The exclusion of participatory planning process is also caused by the lack of public participation and there is only certain level of planning process that involved public community in decision making and implementing the decisions. This study aims to analyse the level of public participation in decision making and to identify the stakeholders involve in participatory planning process for Orang Asli community resettlements programme at Desa Temuan, Damansara Perdana. The objectives of the study (i) to assess the level of participatory planning process in the study area; and (ii) to identify the stakeholders involved in the participatory planning process in the study area. This study represents a qualitative study where the data analysed manually using the grounded theory. The in-depth interview was done between the stakeholders and Orang Asli. Findings from the study showed that the participatory planning approach for development of Desa Temuan did not involve the community of Orang Asli through the whole process of decision making. The developer uses a third party to act as a representative for them to negotiate with the community of Orang Asli to ease the communication aspects, discussions and to reach an agreement on both sides. The participatory planning approach can open opportunity for people excluded from development not only to participate in decision making but also to assess levels of local government transparency and accountability. Every participant should be welcomed and respected and the process shouldn’t be dominated by any individual or group, or by a single point of view. Everyone also actually gets to participate in the planning process, and has some role in decision making.