Exploring E-Participation Policy and Initiatives in Malaysia

Abstract

The evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the internet have affected the cultural, social, economic and political aspect throughout the world. It also greatly reshaped public administration in the last decade. The availability of internet and electronic medium also open a huge opportunity for the public to participate and become closer to the government. A new form of two-way communication for public and government officials have been developed and changed the landscape of local democracy. Consequently, in the current digital era, electronic participation or as known as e-participation as tools that encourage public participation has gained increasingly important. With the complexity of modern society today, e-participation helps to enhance the quality of participation. E-participation also could be a great complement to the traditional approach of public participation that may have some significance limitation in empowering public participation. However, the discussion on the e-participation policy and initiatives in Malaysia still lacking and remains unclear. Therefore, this paper aims to comprehensively deliberate on the efforts that have been taken by the government towards the e-participation implementation. This paper also will provide an example of the experiences on the world’s best leaders in e-participation.

Violated factors in building citizen-centric e-government websites: insights from the performance of the federal, state and local governments websites in Malaysia

“…The findings of the study revealed that none of the websites allowed users/residents to vote on or co-create projects and services. This finding is compatible with Khadzali and Zan (2019), MDEC (2017) and Salamat et al (2011), as there is a serious lack of Malaysian e-government platforms that effectively emphasise e-decision-making. Especially on the ProBE 2016 report, where the item of “presence of e-decision-making: publish outcome of citizen feedback on services/national strategy/policy” ranked the last (only 5% of the total of 622 websites complied with) among the 64 items assessed (MDEC, 2017, p. 10).…”

“…The ProBE focuses on evaluating e-government websites from a provider-centric perspective, JSIT 25,1 whereas MUSE concentrates on public surveys on user satisfaction. Since the ProBE egovernment assessment of the three levels of federal, state and local government websites in 2016, there have been no updated or later editions of the assessment (Khadzali and Zan, 2019).…”

Smart City development in “Nusantara”, the new capital of Indonesia: local government and community readiness

“…Putrajaya itself was built based on the vision to make it a smart green city (Lim et al, 2021). The integration of ICT into the aspects of urban life and smart dimensions in Putrajaya can be viewed, among others, through e-Participation as the realisation of the smart government dimension (Khadzali & Md Zan, 2019;Lim & Yigitcanlar, 2022).…”

Citizen Participation and Climate Change within an Urban Community Context: Insights for Policy Development for Bottom-Up Climate Action Engagement

“…Citizens with a voice on their communities' wellbeing tend to be more participative in the mitigation and adaptation efforts proposed. As indicated in the study reported by Khadzali and Md Zan [61], the Malaysian government has invested in various participation platforms. However, these platforms do not provide the citizens with enough power to voice their opinions by setting participating rules and restrictions.…”