It was cold & rainy yesterday when I enjoyed my breakfast. Usually I read newspaper or commercial brochures when I have my breakfast. When I enjoyed my toast  & a mug of hot milk, my eyes caught something interesting among a mound of newspapers. It was Monash Bulletin. I took it, scanned it…and when I opened the 2nd page, I was interested to read it more in depth. It impressed me much. I continued to read the whole pages  and it made me more deeply impressed bout City of Monash. Wondering what was it?

It told us about Monash City Council activities in city planning. Yup, it was about Monash City planning. What occurred in the city, what next will be held for the city, what the City Council done for the community…. all are in that bulletin, a three-weekly bulletin published by Monash City Council for the community. The community know everything bout their city. It is a transparency city planning. It tells us bout participatory planning……community participation in city planning. Good governance is being implemented here !!!

1) City Development : the bulletin reports whether the City Council grant a planning permit for site project development or refuse to grant it; what kind of new development will be implemented & where it will be — public facilities such as public toilets, additional facilities for disabled people at the swimming pool area (at the Monash Aquatic and Recreation Center), road improvement works, public hearing & public comment schedule for the released city planning draft, awards being won by the city, etc. Even the due date of rate payment reminder for the community. For instance, the bulletin reported the Public Consultation for the Oakleigh Pool Redevelopment, what kind of development alternatives were suggested by the community, the consultation process including survey and interview activities with plan & questionnaires. The consultation report will be used as a guide by the Oakleigh Recreation Center Redevelopment Streering Committee in making its recommendation to Council. In addition, it also reported about the City of Monash who won the Eco-Buy Award as their effort to achieve sustainable development. The Council provided leadership to Monash community to buy green products (GP) as social and environmentally responsibility. GP are defined as those that are less damaging for the environment and human health than competing products that serve the same purpose. They are categorized according to recycled content, greenhouse friendliness, water saving, energy & fuel efficiency, and low toxicity. Green purchasing is based on the simple premise that every product purchased impacts our environment. Even more, at the end of bulletin, it is clearly written that "the bulletin was printed in environmentally conscious manner on 80gsm printspeed - a fully recyclable offset paper made.The fibrous raw material used in the manufacture of printspeed comes from a number of sources, including plantation pulp. There is no Australian old growth wood used in the manufacture of this product."

2) Internal Council Activity: community not only know about their city planning, but also what the council do internally. The bulletin also reported the new committee member who will be in charge in special duty and his duty period. It also announced when the next council meeting will be held to get community involved in the meeting.

3) City Events Calendar: what & where will happen in the city, specifically exhibitions, workshops, festivals, and tutoring.

After all, good governance is still just an issue in Indonesia. It is hard to communicate & consult the planning draft with the community. When community just heard bout the planning, the demos and riots happened. In some project development community seldom to be involved in, most the development projects are in the private sector authority. At the same time community do not know about the development planning. Most internal council activities known by the community are the negative ones; reading newspaper or sleeping even more active with their mobiles while the meeting being done, sexual scandals, long dabate in spending money on laptops, etc.

Where are the city planners and managers? How can we deal with this situation to make our city more comfortable & sustainable to live in? The weakness had by city planners & managers is that they seem forget & put away their idealism to implement good governance when they act as bureaucrat. It is our responsibility as city planners & managers to help our city to get out from these riots. We plan, design, develop, manage our city for community. To that end, we should do these efforts with them, the community for our more livable city.