III. EXISTING INSTITUTIONS AND MEASURES FOR INTEGRATING ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS INTO DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AND DECISION-MAKING

[ III-A | III-B | III-C | III-D ]

A. Planning aspects

[ A-1 | A-2 | A-3 | A-4| A-5 ]

4. Public involvement in various aspects of participatory planning

The experience of many countries shows that valuable inputs could be obtained from the general public, especially affected communities that are adjacent to proposed project areas. Under the EIA requirements in Malaysia, the public is invited to comment on projects that entail detailed assessments and the EIA report is made available to the public at selected locations such as the Department of Environment Resource Centre. However, the same practice is not extended to those projects that are subject to EIAs at the preliminary assessment stage.

Public comments on detailed EIA reports has not been encouraging in terms of quantity or quality. While the authorities assert that the opportunities afforded by present system of public participation are adequate, several NGOs continue to attribute the poor response to a lack of detailed and timely information. Those NGOs have requested the disclosure of proposals at the earliest possible opportunity. Such a request has to be viewed and balanced against the need to avoid premature disclosure of project proposals and process details. There are a number of related concerns and issues of interest, including the following questions:

Has the man on the street, the affected public and the taxpayer unlimited right of access to each EIA report prepared by the project proponent?

Is the EIA report submitted to Department of Environment a public document, and has ownership been transferred to the authorities upon transmission?

If the report is a public document, is every member of the public entitled to receive it, including those having only a remote interest?

What implications exist vis-à-vis commercial intelligence operations (Tan, 1995)?

According to City Hall of Kuala Lumpur, a 30-day notification is given to the public to enable opposition to any issues to brought up by private developers or City Hall itself. The notice is placed in at least two local newspapers, and also on signs at the future construction sites. Public participation is increasing in environmental monitoring in Malaysia. For example, to monitor open burning, the general public, volunteer groups and the mass media are being encouraged to either volunteer to undertake monitoring activities or to telephone City Hall of Kuala Lumpur with information on open burning and any factories responsible for the release of smoke during episodic haze situations in Kuala Lumpur.

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