KUALA LUMPUR: After one year of braving the Covid-19 pandemic, the Alliance of Safe Community has found that community participation and empowerment in fighting the coronavirus were still below the desired level.
Although there was no global gold standard of community participation, the alliance's chairman, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said it still takes strong governance to mobilise resources and provide clear leadership to lead the country's pandemic responses.
"We believe that Malaysia could do much better in community participation and empowerment to fight the coronavirus, should the Covid-19 pandemic resurface in coming years.
"What is urgently needed now is to mobilise the entire community to participate in the pandemic response, as well as the National Covid-19 Immunization Plan.
"For a start, the government can look into appointing relevant and adequate numbers of community leaders to appropriate Cabinet or Ministry-level committees or task forces.
"For example, they can start by appointing these leaders to be a part of the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Committee.
"At the moment, these committees or task forces are mostly staffed by leaders or senior civil servants in the federal government.
"It is crucial for the government to consciously and actively engage with external community leaders and technical experts instead of relying solely on internal resources, as top-down paternalism is simply not sustainable," he said in a statement, today.
Lee said these leaders can easily assist with communication and education platforms as they could link the government to the community.
"The government should engage with communities as equal partners, instead of issuing top-down directives.
"By having these leaders on board, they can act as a feedback mechanism, sending information and concerns from the community to the government.
"Ideally, they will be helpful to mobilise resources, fill in small gaps in the community, and leave the large gaps to the government, while promoting community resilience and cohesion.
"Which is why it is more relevant to appoint community leaders to participate in these task forces, to assist with community engagement, public education or vaccine confidence," he said.
Lee said the participation of non-governmental individuals (NGIs) and non-governmental organisation (NGOs), too, can be mobilised as the bridge to strengthen decision-making in Putrajaya.
"A structured participation of NGOs and NGIs could have created robust and more acceptable standard operating procedures (SOP).
"They bring genuine concerns, experience and networks in making decisions more realistic, instead of having it issued from an ivory tower.
"They could also assist with the implementations of decisions reached by the government, which is often the missing link between civil servants in Putrajaya and in the field," he said.
Lee said allowing active engagement between the government and communities is another step to empowering community participation.
"The government should provide space for those within the communities to decide on how they can best help to empower and strengthen their community participation during this pandemic, instead of providing a one-size-fits-all framework.
"They should make it easier for these communities to find balance between sufficient oversight while ensuring transparency and integrity, as well as enough freedom to operate, to encourage more citizens to join community activities.
"If done right, community participation in a multi-year pandemic will help improve health and non-health outcomes," he said.
Lee said regular participation from those on the ground will improve familiarity and trust between government officers and the community.
"This can ease future dialogues, decisions and implementation.
"It will benefit public health leaders in acknowledging NGOs and NGIs to help with public education, translation support for migrant communities or measures to increase vaccine confidence.
"Community leadership and participation are crucial for a successful vaccination programme as it will contribute to building vaccine confidence among the communities, having community organisation to participate for vaccine logistics, and delivery and long-term training of community health workers".