Civic
forum must not be a rubber stamp.
From IRISH NEWS June 30th, 2000
By Frances McCANDLESS
The civic forum simply can't pretend to speak for everybody, but its membership
must be chosen to reflect the diversity of society here, and to be balanced
and inclusive. It will be a hard trick to pull off and in many ways it will
be an experiment in seeing if people can set aside their individual hats
and take a broader, more innovative view on the big issues. It will certainly
need to account for itself in terms of reporting back to the wider community
and keeping in touch with the public. Effective publicity, a range of public
hearings and publicly accessible meetings, some outside Belfast, will be
crucial. Whatever the civic forum turns out to be, it can't just be a rubber
stamp to give a gloss of community acceptance to what the assembly is already
planning to do. Proper governance requires pulling together all the skills
and experiences within a society. We might just be getting there. |
