Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of ...

As the economy grows – Vietnam’s goal is to be an industrialized country by 2030 –
participation seems to be not only necessary but inevitable in any political process. LE
Kuan Yew, Singapore’s president, argued 20 years ago already (1991): “Once you reach a
certain level of industrial progress, you have got an educated workforce, an urban
population, you have managers and engineers. Then you must have participation because
these are educated, rational people. If you carry on with an authoritarian system, you will
run into all kinds of logjams.”
Thus many NGOs come to Vietnam to support the Vietnamese government with advanced
policy from developed countries. They also collaborate with local citizens and experts to
change the political system. Recently, several NGOs worked with the Vietnamese
government to develop planning processes as well as to provide tools and establish
frameworks to support the development of participation processes. For instance, Health
Bridge and UN Habitat assist the government in policy-making and public forums (Hanoi
public city) and public bodies (Ashui, an architecture forum) provide platforms for citizens
to criticize policies, plans and the cities’ news.
Nowadays you can observe situations where Hanoians raise their voices about urban plans
or to complain about abuses. An current example is the collective claims concerning a
children’s playground close to a housing area (EXPERT-F 2012). This has been achieved
by using the new communication channel of social media.
The vanguards, those who first debate against irrational plans, are architects, scientists and
other well-educated people. Of course, these do not represent the majority of inhabitants.
But nevertheless, it is a first step and gives other people examples, ideas and also courage
to discuss and to call for more transparency.
Slowly, there are more and more people who are well educated and well behaved in the
community; these vanguards drive to new trend of lifestyle by which people make claims
better for society’s needs. Through lifestyle changes, people learn how to claim for their
own demands. Everyday topics (body, health, exercise, weight, appearance and vitality) are
commonly conversed and advice exchanged (see CRAIG 2002).
Moreover, the fast development of technology – internet platforms, social networks, etc. –
delivers useful tools for raising citizen’s opinions. There are already websites about parks
in Hanoi (for instance, http://60s.com.vn/V-Congvien-Hanoi.aspx#top) and even a single
website for the big park (Thong Nhat). However, their function is just to introduce the
parks; it is not a platform for people to comment or to improve those parks.
Sufficient conditions to ensure “that government at the local level can become more
responsive to citizen desires and more effective in service delivery” and finally ‘democratic
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