I HAVE long ago realized that enforcement and compliance are two sides of the same coin.
To stress the obvious, enforcement is needed in order for citizens to comply, meaning to say that there could be no compliance if there is no enforcement.
In ideal situations, perhaps in more developed societies, citizens would comply on their own initiative, but perhaps that is too much to expect from fragile democracies. Now however, I have also realized that good governance and good citizenship are also two sides of the same coin, so to speak.
Again to stress the obvious, good governance would be a difficult goal to achieve if there is no good citizenship, because these two goals should actually have a symbiotic relationship.
Participatory governance is now a popular buzzword in developing countries, but it goes without saying that the basic foundation of participatory governance is really good citizenship in the first place.
Inclusive societies is also now a popular buzzword, but that too would need good citizenship as a basic foundation, because there would be no use of trying to include all sectors in the mainstream of society, if in the first place there is no good citizenship, or in other words, if the citizens are not even interested in being included into the mainstream in the first place.
For good governance to happen, the government should be engaging, meaning that the government should engage the citizens in an interactive relationship, but that too would amount to nothing if the citizens would not respond.
For a long time now, I have been fascinated by the convergence of everything “green” and everything “blue”, having defined “green” as everything agricultural and everything environmental on one hand, and having defined “blue” as everything electrical and everything technological on the other hand.
My fascination with the convergence of “green” and “blue” stems from my own belief that cities could not be “green” if these are not “smart”, having defined “smart” as having stable energy on one hand, and having stable connectivity on the other hand.
I believe that these two should also have a symbiotic relationship, because it is not possible to have stable connectivity if there is no stable energy. It goes without saying that in order for energy to be “green”, it also has to be renewable. (To be continued)/PN
