Political Apathy or Political Exclusion? Malaysian Youth, Generational Barriers and Inclusive Political Participation for Urban Development Planning in Penang

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Introduction

When a city or state government undertakes a large-scale development project, such governments may initiate or support activities that foster participation of the inhabitants. Participation is deployed as a policy method to ensure a prospected project is inclusive, and by extension, for the city to become more inclusive as a whole. Ideally, by creating a platform that takes the concerns of the (affected) inhabitants into consideration, the otherwise potentially forgotten issues, or otherwise excluded people, are thought to be accounted for. In practice, this is often less straightforward, particularly in societies where political liberties and civic space for its citizens are limited. The effectiveness of participatory activities depends on how receptive the authorities are towards unsolicited or unwanted advice and critique activities we can refer to as “political participation,” in contrast with solicited “citizen partici pation.” To a political activist, their concerns voiced through activism cannot be properly addressed through state-initiated channels of participation. Yet, for a partic ipatory development project to be truly inclusive, one could argue activist concerns should still be properly addressed, regardless of the political ambitions of the state,that may underpin the project.