Rural Development Challenges

The challenge for rural communities is quite apparent.


 Major problems faced during the earlier periods after independence have greatly reduced, e.g.:

•  poverty
•  lack of infrastructure
• amenities
• low level of education and health. 

As old problems vanish new problems crop up and more challenges appear on the scene. Globalisation is one of the great challenges. The continuing concentration on urban development in core regions also poses a threat of the backwash effect to rural regions and increasing rural-urban disparity. Rural regions are losing population due to out migration. 


The problem oriented approach adopted in rural development in the past has ignored the potential rural heritage and these strengths are being depleted out of neglect. The potential which should have been preserved or utilised instead has been destroyed in the process of problem solving. There are issues of quality and human values. The modern lifestyle and social structure has eroded traditional values that preserve family structure and community.

Project 6: Role Play

Project 6, we assign to the acting, the assignment title for our group this time is related to pollution. Our group as the debate on the project 5.

Within 2 days, we provide props, scripts and practice for the show on Monday. This is my first time acting, and I feel like "kayu".


However, from this project I can learn about the work of the group, we share many feelings of happy, depressed, nervous, and many more.


We enjoy it :)

Project 2 : THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN PROVIDING LOW COST HOUSING( *change my research topic)

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN PROVIDING LOW COST HOUSING
A CASE STUDY: KELANTAN

PROBLEM STATEMENT

•       According (Mohd Razali Agus, 1992) the responsibility of providing low cost housing is not only implemented by the government but the private sector also plays an important role since the implementation of privatization policies in the provision of low cost housing in the 1980s.

•       The government responsible for the preparation of low cost houses for low income earners. However, the performance of the preparation showed the government's role is significantly reduced and unsatisfactory. Therefore, whether the roles of providing low cost housing have been transferred to the private sector? How far the government role in providing low cost housing?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To study the role of government agencies in the provision of low cost housing in Kelantan through the implementation of policies, programs and incentives.
2. To examine issues and problems faced by the government agencies in provider of low cost housing in Kelantan.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Low cost housing

The concept of low cost housing is defined according to selling price of RM25 000 per unit or less. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government has further laid down the following guidelines for this category of housing :

1. The target group consists of households with monthly incomes not exceeding RM750.
2. The type of houses may include flats, terrace or detached houses.
3. The minimum design standard specifies a built-up area of 550-600 square feet, 2 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. (Ghani Salleh and Lee L.M, 1997)

Housing

—  Pugh (1994) interpreted that the housing is a physical shelter is equipped with the infrastructure.

—  United Nations (1976) defines housing as a residential environment that has a neighbourhood unit, a small area or physical structure used as human shelter.

 METHODS DATA COLLECTION

·         Focus on government agencies in Kelantan that involved in the provision of  low cost housing.

·         Doesn’t involve any sampling frame but using population data collection techniques that is focus of all government agencies involved in the provision of low cost housing in Kelantan.

Primary data

Primary data consist of data obtained from questionnaires and interviews with the parties involved directly or indirectly. Questionnaires are develop and distributed to the parties involved.

Secondary data

The data obtained in reference literature and the reading of literature sources.Reading materials are from magazines, pamphlets, articles, reports, newspapers and publications concerning the source of this study.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

• —            If the compare between the private sector plays a major role in the supply of low cost houses. This is because in 1983, the government has implemented the concept of privatization projects in low-cost housing construction. The government in fact want to have private parties gain much they contributed to the lower income groups through cross-subsidies. The private sector can only do so when economic conditions allow it to be implemented. (Ghani Salleh & Lee Lik Meng, 1997, Low cost Housing in Malaysia)
• —  One suggestion given by the Amir, Abdul Rashid and Mohd Yahaya (1997) is through the concept of a consortium or partnership between the private sector and government. While private parties are encouraged to build more low cost housing but at the same time the government should implement   its social responsibility to provide low-cost housing.

—  

Project 5: Debate

We got debate for our Project 5, which is we need to debate with others friends in this studio. Our debate tittle is about "Coastal Development is Beneficial for the people". Our group member is Mirul, Zu, Nisah, Sab, Katy and I. Our group is government side.


The coastal development will give the positive social impact as to make the place as a tourist attraction areas. For our information, the tourism industry is now the third largest foreign exchange earner after manufacturing and oil gas.


The major assets for support coastal development in this :

• sandy beaches
• scenic offshore islands
• coral reef
• nature habitat

For example, the offshore islands of  Langkawi, Pulau Perhentian, Pulau Redang and Tioman are rapidly gaining popularity as international class tourist destinations.


Besides that, the nature of the new jobs created by tourism in coastal development, people get part time seasonal employment and overall flexible working conditions. Young people and less skilled worked and get the benefit from the job opportunities in tourism.


Because of local policy, makers are very concerned about the issues of quality employment. So we can see that tourism in coastal development can give benefit to the people around there to increase their economy. People also dependent on nature resources in which almost all the activities carried out involved either directly or indirectly in respect of the use of natural resources.






Our group members Amirul Asyraf become a best debater. 

The New Approach to Village and Rural Development (NAVRD)

NAVRD is another programme of rural development launched in October 1984, a modern land and agrarian reform. The aim is to increase income of small farmers by improving efficiency and productivity through economies of scale in production and utilisation of modern methods of production and management, and improve the standard of living of traditional village people by provision of infrastructure and facilities. The new move aimed to address the persistent and increasing socio-economic gap between traditional rural dwellers and the urban and modern sector. An alarming increase in idle alienated land, a continued productivity gap between traditional agriculture sectors and modern estate sectors and the limited access of traditional villages to basic modern services, were signs of the inability of the conventional approach to cope with the needs of contemporary socio-economic change.


The three main components of NAVRD were:


1. A voluntary consolidation of individually owned private land into large holdings called estates. The estates were to be owned by the participating land-owners, who were receiving shares in ratio to the land they had contributed. The new estates were to be managed as co-operatives by professional managers with the objective of profit maximization.


2. The development of agricultural and non-agricultural based industry within the project area to provide additional employment opportunities and income, and to accelerate further the process of rural transformation.


3. Resettlement of scattered villages to a centralised village with modern basic facilities such as schools, clinics, piped water, electricity and recreation.




The implementation of NAVRD would utilise the existing government set-up and machinery, without introducing new enabling legislation. The programme relied on the reallocation of existing financial and other resources from existing government organisations dealing with rural development.

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The Regional Development Authorities

On broader scale and in a comprehensive strategy of development in rural regions, several statutory regional development authorities were established to implement the development strategy in resource frontier areas, mainly virgin forest situated in the less-developed parts of Peninsular Malaysia such as in the southeast of Pahang, southeast of Johor, the south of Kelantan and the middle parts of Terengganu. Most RDAs, particularly those related to the development of new towns, were established in the 1970s not long after the NEP was launched.



Apart from the main goals of poverty eradication and the restructuring of society, the RDAs were given the following mandates: to redress economic and structural imbalances between regions; to utilise resource strengths/endowments of less developed states towards national economic development; to strengthen agricultural and industrial development in lagging regions, to redirect new development and growth to less developed regions and finally, to urbanise rural agricultural regions by development of towns in the rural areas.



Three decades after RDAs were established, more than 40 new towns had been developed. Twenty-three new towns were in the Pahang Tenggara Development Authority (DARA) region, twelve in the Johor Tenggara Development Authority (KEJORA) region, five in the Terengganu Tengah Regional Development Authority (KETENGAH) region and one each in the Jengka Regional Development Authority (JENGKA) and the South Kelantan Development Authority (KESEDAR) region. These towns were mainly developed by the RDAs and FELDA. Two RDAs, the Penang Regional Development Authority (PERDA) and the Kedah Regional Development Authority (KEDA) are not involve in new townships development and their main programs are in-situ rural development projects such as improvement of the physical conditions of existing settlements and rural industrialisation.

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The history of rural development in Malaysia

Since Malaysia became independent from British rule in 1957, rural development has always been considered important in the agenda of national development. Many strategies and programmed were introduced to promote the well-being of rural people ranging from development of the agriculture sector, rural industrialization, resettlement schemes, provision of public facilities and infrastructure to human and community development. Rural development can be seen as a process of change carried out deliberately for the betterment of rural people. 


The process of change is continuous, and its essentially interventionist aims are to achieve certain goals or to solve problems of the rural areas. As a process of induced change led by the state, rural development activities covered elements such as planning, implementation, monitoring and involved multi-disciplinary actors, such as state agencies, the private sector, NGOs and the general public. Due to the nature of rural development activities with overriding state interventions, rural development in Malaysia tended to be viewed as synonymous with the state rural development strategies and programmers aimed at solving problems facing rural sectors such as poverty, low productivity, low income, lack of proper and adequate rural infrastructures and the rural-urban disparity that existed prior to independence.

During the decades after independence, much effort and many resources were spent to improve the well-being of rural people ranging from development of infrastructure and facilities, modernisation of rural sectors through the use of modern techniques of production, agriculture support services, integrated area development and institutional development. 


An assessment of the success and shortfall of implementation and outcomes has been widely discussed and debated by researchers and practitioners in the field. The discourses on rural development tended to fall within the theoretical framework of development economics, focusing on the dichotomy between modernisation theory and technocratic approach on one hand and reformist and political economy on the other. The approach to rural development appeared to be problem oriented and focused on the basic needs of the poor sections of the community. The extent of rural development in the future is expected to look into the potential and strength of our rich rural heritage and to venture into the future guided by rural vision.