I’m a great believer of people participation and I would love to have more of a say in local politics. I would personally avoid replicating systems that fit neatly with ideas about how to do things and mimic existing structures simply because we understand them or they are familiar to us.
Relevance, accessibility, openness, transparency, accountability and results would be key issues for me before I gave my time to participate.
Like most people I am interested in some things and not others, and like most people I am more motivated to find the time to take part in things that either interest or are of concern to me and most importantly where I can see that my views are being listened too, taken seriously and actually make a difference.
A model that facilitates and enables relevant people’s participation on the issues they care about and incorporates a range of methods as appropriate to consult and involve them to ensure their views are taken into account would hold more interest for me.
This could include as some have already mentioned, local surgeries, online questionnaires via forums and the local media, interest focus groups, presentations to and meetings with key players or decision makers, petitions etc...
For example street cats and dogs; do we need to consult the whole of the local population to know what the issues are and what can be done to improve the situation? No! We already have local Vets, the staff at the shelter, Animal Aid and probably there are local Turkish organisations or Turkish interest groups too with a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the situation and what needs to be done.
Or what about access issues for people with disabilities re pavements and roads, public transport, hotels, bars and restaurants, public buildings like schools, Government offices, banks and shops etc. Who would I consult? People with disabilities and their Carers and local support or interest groups that probably already exist!
On issues like cleaning up the shoreline of litter in this area or how should Fethiye develop and promote itself as a centre for Tourism then wider consultations of all local people, environment groups, businesses, tourists even, would be more valid and relevant.
Just to add that Turkish people as well as foreigners should be involved in these processes. I think that there may be an assumption that local Turks are involved in decision making in their communities but I doubt very much that they are.
Also there is nothing wrong with having information available in more than one language if you want people to be able to participate as opposed to just paying lip service to the idea. The 65 year old ex pats in Fethiye probably have just as much difficulty learning fluent Turkish as the 65 year old ex pats in the UK do learning fluent English!
Anyway just my initial thoughts and just to add that whatever way/s forward is adopted it looks like hell of a lot of work for some people and I would suggest that someone with a working knowledge of people’s participation is employed to facilitate the process.
