77 VARIA RANAH 2023 The Role of Civil Service in Accelerating Civic Engagement for MADANI-Nation Building and Community Empowerment LITERATURE REVIEW This article is referring to various sources related to the topic of ‘civic engagement’. Since the term carries several definitions according to writer’s perspective and the context to be highlighted, this article only touches the general idea on civic engagement term. The term was chosen to emphasize on the role of a society to be together with the government in helping to realize the vision of MADANI Malaysia. Among other articles referred to is an article by Ed Everett entitled How Civic Engagement Transform Community relations - Strategies and solutions for local government managers. The article focused on addressing civic engagement initiated by a city or country government with its resident. The article highlighted on the varies definition of civic engagement, the benefits to cities, challenges for a local government to implement civic engagement as well as resistance factors of some people to civic engagement. The articles also recommended on how to lead civic engagement events and shared some stories and case studies. RESEARCH FINDINGS/DISCUSSION Flooded information setting of today makes the era of government knows everything is over, accordingly, the era of government to shoulder all blame and responsibilities should also be over. Challenges such as unequal wealth sharing, poverty, environmental degradation, poor perception and deep-rooted corruption as well as stagnant economic performance are compounded by present complexities and future uncertainties. This predicament called for a more significant shared responsibility between government and the people. Hence the focus of Malaysia MADANI concept is centred on creating a civilised society in which the community should be together with the government in carrying Malaysia forward. Every citizen needs to play own role in ensuring a sustainable future for Malaysia. A. Definition of Civic Engagement Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community. Civic engagement is "a process in which people take collective action to address issues of public concern" and is "instrumental to democracy" (Checkoway & Aldana, 2012). Government at all levels; namely, federal, state, local, city council and district should be organizing more efforts towards stimulating civic engagement among society. Government should utilise non-government entities such as international organization (IO), civil society organization (CSO), non-government organization (NGO), business, community or residentbased associations. Civic engagement should be encouraged particularly among local community and specific interest group such as business/trade-based group. Local community or specific interest group should be able to manage own affairs, make decision and act accordingly with minimal intervention and close monitoring by the government. This is to ensure niche interest is genuinely protected by own members, whom must be accountable on every decision made. However, government must ensure those who lead own community are equipped with necessary knowledge, able to lead and govern as well as to advise or even advocate related to issue or matter of concerns.
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