14 - Governance and Accountability in Southeast Asian Cities

Summary

Cities are now touted as engines of development. Although this has been the role of cities since the glory days of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and Huang Ho Plains about 4,000 to 6,000 years ago (Reader 2004), the idea of promoting cities as engines of development is a recent phenomenon.

But the gulf between wanting to promote cities as engines of development and actually achieving success is rather wide. Governance has been identified as an important factor in determining success or failure. The objective of this chapter is to discuss the realities of governance in Southeast Asian cities. The focus is on accountability as it would not be possible to cover all the characteristics of good governance in a short chapter. Besides, accountability, a basic pillar of good governance, is closely linked to transparency and rule of law, two other important pillars.

THE POWER OF CITIES

It was not long ago that cities were seen as centres of crime and moral decay. Suburban development and new towns were popular during the post-war boom days. Political economists even termed cities as “theatres of accumulation” and therefore not friendly to the working class. An example of an extreme anti-urban measure was the clearing of Phnom Penh by the Pol Pot regime in 1975, which caused great miseries and countless deaths. Lately, however, leading urban scholars have been singing the praises of cities.

But the rural poor have always known about the “prosperity” properties of towns and cities. During the Industrial Revolution, the poor of Europe flocked to the towns to be part of the engines of growth. Since then, their cousins in the developing countries in Asia, South America, and Africa have been coming to the cities to try to share in the prosperity and better quality of life. Many have made it. The sizeable and growing middle class is clear testimony to this.

However, many are left behind. Some have suffered even poorer quality of life, largely as a result of discrimination, or the couldn't-careless attitude of administrators. But for them, there is no turning back. There is hope, if not for themselves, then at least for their children. As Lewis Mumford once said, “the City is a place for multiplying happy chances and making the most of unplanned opportunities” (Mumford and Miller 1986, p. 43).