TOWARDS PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

On Jul 27, 2012, at 1:44 PM, fazal anwar wrote: please note I have send this to NST ...please share with the others ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: fazal anwar To: "sharannst@gmail.com" ; lkfatt8@yahoo.com Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 1:41 PM Subject: Letter to the Editor... Dear Sharanjit, Dear Keng Fatt I need to make some clarifications to a report in the NST yesterday and will be grateful if you will consider this letter for publication in full on Saturday or Monday. Thank You  salaams..anwar fazal ------------------------------------------------------------------- TOWARDS PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY I  refer to the article "Spell out your vision,Guan Eng told" (NST July 26 2012)  and like to make two points of clarification. Firstly, the words "from the horse's mouth" which are in quotation marks, may appear to have been uttered by me. Neither I nor any of the Penang Forum Representatives used those words at the press conference. Secondly, the Penang Forum press statement stated an important point that was omitted and important for the context: that there had been in Penang 'a considerable improvement ' with regards to ' openness, transparency and consultation' and it was in this spirit that this dialogue was being held to address new and sometime worrisome, challenges that have emerged. The planned dialogue ,scheduled for August 4th, we hope will be engaging,constructive and forward looking in the spirit of good governance and for the betterment of Penang ,its livability and its global recognition destinations with the UNESCO World Heritage Site status and its outstanding universal values on which that recognition was based. The purpose of the dialogue is to enhance Penang's status through interactive public engagement  and we are grateful that the Chief Minister of Penang is joining us in this forward looking exercise . This is the essence of "Participatory Democracy"  and we should all work for more of it. Penang , and particularly George Town, was once described by Ms Isabella Bird ,an eminent traveler and author of the travel classic  "The Golden Chersonese" as ' truly a brilliant place under a brilliant sun '. That was is 1879.  The people of Penang  want to ensure that it continues to be even more so . Dato' Anwar Fazal Chairperson, Penang Forum Public Dialogue