Public-Private Partnership as an Institutionalized Means for Effective Political Agency: The Case of Pemudah, Malaysia

To facilitate input from the private sector in any government’s decision making process, the public and private sectors must engage in a discourse as partners. As a theoretical basis for such a partnership, this article looks into the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. In Hannah Arendt’s conception of a “public world” individual human beings articulate their thoughts and feelings by engaging in a discourse with other individuals. Arendt viewed the public world as a table separating yet at the same time relating the people sitting around it, or as the ancient Greek polis where opinions are expressed and debated in the name of public interest. Utilizing the aforementioned politico-philosophical argument, this article proposes principles for a public-private partnership. These are: freedom of participation in the discourse; issues must be of common concern; while participants as private persons must speak and think in a language of public reason, and act as true representatives of all citizens. Such partnership is socially acceptable and durable, and accordingly, serves as an institutionalized means for effective political agency. Pemudah is an example of a bureaucratic entity to accommodate public-private participation.