Monday, June 29, 2009

Penang Inshore Fishermen Welfare Association (PIFWA): The Heroes

It has been almost 5 years since the Tsunami hit us .. hopefully we have learned something from it. Actually, what is more important is to implement and practice what we have learn, otherwise the learning and experience will be useless.

Here I take the pleasure to reproduce this short write-up from Sustainability in Penangite Accent on how the Penang Inshore Fishermen Welfare Association's foresight and hard work saved the day.

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The birth of Penang Inshore Fishermen Welfare Association (PIFWA), a community based nonprofit and independent organization, in 1994 was in response to the growing coastal development and resource depletion. PIFWA’s objective is to achieve solidarity among inshore fishermen and voice issues that affect their livelihoods. PIFWA promotes traditional and sustainable fishing practices and prudent management of the coastal environments, mangrove habitats, and river ecosystems.

In the late 1990s, PIFWA began a campaign to replant mangrove trees in Kuala Sg.Pinang, Nibong Tebal. Although many people shrugged it off and thought that it served no purpose, the fishermen continued planting the mangrove (Bernama, 2008). They replanted mangroves in many of the cleared coastal areas. With the assistance of SAM and CAP PIFWA shared their mangrove planting experience with other fishermen communities in Malaysia. In general their efforts were not appreciated by the local communities and the authorities. Sometime, they were treated as “trouble makers” when they raised the issue of the coastal management to the authorities.

The 26 December 2004 tsunami taught Malaysians the importance of conserving the natural environment and in turn changed PIWFA from trouble makers to heroes. The Indian Ocean tsunami hit Penang state causing casualties and destruction to many properties and facilities along the coastal area. Areas protected by the mangrove forest were undamaged or experienced less destruction. The PIFWA was praised for its foresight (Bernama, 2008). The Prime Minister announced a national plan to replant the mangrove forest along the Malaysian coast.

Many government departments, the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGO) provided support to PIFWA to continue its effort. PIWFA was awarded more funding for mangrove planting from the international donors, local authorities, and private corporations.

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Have you heard about this statement ... "Only time will tell whether what we are doing is right or wrong" ? .. I guess it is a very true statement


Penang government's ban on plastic bags - a mere greenwash ?

About a month ago (May 28, 2009), the Penang Chief Minister announced the state government's plan to reduce plastic bags usage in the state. A week later, more details were given as how we can reduce plastic bags usage. Seems like a very good effort by the state government to reduce pollution and safe guard our environment. And the 'feeling good' atmosphere continued with additional statement that the state has also banned the use of polystyrene boxes and plates at all of official state functions.

But, are we missing something ???

I am not sure what more is in store but I see lack of political will and shallowness in these actions to safeguard the most important stakeholders - the environment & the people.

Why no total ban on the plastic bag usage ? What are we waiting for to happen before we can have a total ban of plastics bags ? Why only on Mondays? Why only the hypermarkets?

Seems to me like a greenwash .. it clearly shows lack of political will on the part of state government to protect our environment.

Is the state government trying to protect plastic bag manufacturers ? Lets face it. Plastic bags are detriment to environment. So why do we want to protect an industry which is detriment to the environment ??? The state government must work closely with plastics manufacturers to phase out this industry. Provide incentives for plastic bag manufacturers to switch to something which is friendly. Based on CAT principles, the state government should outline its plan to totally phase out, not only plastic bag usage in Penang, but also plastic bag manufacturing. This effort must be extended to all kinds of plastic containers especially those who has very short usage life-span such as gift and snacks wrappers as well as plastics sheets which is usually used to pack food.

Anyway, plastic bags are just one of the cause of pollution in Penang . Let's not miss the big picture. The Penang government must start to implement actions to reduce sea and river pollutions caused by the industries (do you dare to swim in Penang beaches nowadays ??) well as the air pollution caused by automobiles.

We need sustainable industries and sustainable transport !!!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Thirukkural on Emotional Intelligence - Part 1

While going through Thirukkural, one key message that I get is the importance of being emotionally intelligent similar to what being pointed out by Daniel Goleman in his "Emotional Intelligence - Why it can matter more than IQ" book. I thought of doing everybody a favour by listing the Kurals that I think talks about or touches on emotional intelligence.

It is actually interesting to note that Thiruvalluvar, who authored Thirukkural some 2000 years ago, gave quite considerable focus on the need for human-kind to be emotionally intelligent. He wrote about the importance of managing one's senses and emotions as well as the consequences that we must face for our failure to manage our emotions and senses.

I have listed down the Kurals with the translation (copied from either Acharya , Dinamalar and Trix Apps) and my own explanation. I referred to a few websites to better understand the meanings. They are Acharya , Dinamalar and Trix Apps. Trix Apps also provides a cool javascript widget that we can put on our blogs and websites. Check it out at the of my blog main page.

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Couplet 7

அதிகாரம் : கடவுள் வாழ்த்து
குறள் : 7
தனக்குவமை இல்லாதான் தாள்சேர்ந்தார்க் கல்லால்
மனக்கவலை மாற்றல் அரிது.

Translation:
Anxiety of mind cannot be removed, except for those who are united to the feet of Him who is incomparable.

In my own words: In order to reduce our anxiety and worries, we should meditate or continuously think of or be with GOD. Meditation will help us to be calm and get rid of unnecessary worries.

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Couplet 27, 126, 174

அதிகாரம் : நீத்தார் பெருமை
குறள் : 27
சுவைஒளி ஊறுஓசை நாற்றமென ஐந்தின்
வகைதெரிவான் கட்டே உலகு.

Translation: The world is within the knowledge of him who knows the properties of taste, sight, touch, hearing and smell

In my own words: We need to be aware of ourselves and what is happening around us. Be always be sensitive or on alert to what is happening around us and know how to respond (or not to respond) to those events . In other words, be emotionally literate so that we are in control of ourselves , our emotions and our relationship with those around us.


அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 126
ஒருநம்யுள் ஆமைபோல் ஐந்தடக்கல் ஆற்றின்
எழுநம்யும் ஏமாப் புடைத்து.

Translation: Should one throughout a single birth, like a tortoise keep in his five senses, the fruit of it will prove a safe-guard to him throughout the seven-fold births.

In my own words: If we are able to control our five senses, basically how we act or react, we will have a smoother journey in life and our future. I guess this is similar to the message in couplet 27 above.

அதிகாரம் : வெஃகாமை
குறள் : 174
இலமென்று வெஃகுதல் செய்யார் புலம்வென்ற
புன்மையில் காட்சி யவர்.

Translation: The wise who have conquered their senses and are free from crime, will not covet (the things of others), with the thought “we are destitute.”

In my own words: If we are able to control our five senses, we will not take others' possessions even though we are really destitute or poor. Again there is some emphasis to control our five senses as mentioned in couplets 27 & 126.

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Couplet 29

அதிகாரம் : நீத்தார் பெருமை
குறள் : 29
குணமென்னும் குன்றேறி நின்றார் வெகுளி
கணமேயும் காத்தல் அரிது.

Translation: The anger of those who have ascended the mountain of good though it continue but for a moment, cannot be resisted

In my own words: Anger, can't be avoided altogether but it can be controlled and overcome. An emotionally intelligent person will be able to handle his or her anger properly. So can all of us. After all, emotional intelligence can be learned and practiced. As human, we can't run away from being angry. But we surely can learn to respond more appropriately.

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Couplet 121, 122, 123 & 124

அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 121
அடக்கம் அமரருள் உய்க்கும் அடங்காமை
ஆரிருள் உய்த்து விடும்.


Translation: Self-control will place (a man) among the Gods; the want of it will drive (him) into the thickest darkness (of hell)

அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 122
காக்க பொருளா அடக்கத்தை ஆக்கம்
அதனினூஉங் கில்லை உயிர்க்கு.

Translation: Let self-control be guarded as a treasure; there is no greater source of good for man than that.

அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 123
செறிவறிந்து சீர்மை பயக்கும் அறிவறிந்து
ஆற்றின் அடங்கப் பெறின்.

Translation: Knowing that self-control is knowledge, if a man should control himself, in the prescribed course, such self-control will bring him distinction among the wise.

அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 124
நிலையின் திரியாது அடங்கியான் தோற்றம்
மலையினும் மாணப் பெரிது.

Translation: More lofty than a mountain will be the greatness of that man who without swerving from his domestic state, controls himself.

In my own words: Self-control (the ability to decide how we want to act or react) will alleviate us to a higher status including and especially on moral terms. Without any self-control, we will face continuous difficulty in our life. Self-control is one of the greatest treasure (skill) that we must continuously be aware of and practice. In fact, self-control is actually a knowledge and will help us to be a person of high emotional intelligence. And guess what ?? People will l00vvveeee you !! And we continue in this path of practicing great self-control, we will be able reach even greater heights.

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Couplet 127, 128, & 129

அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 127
யாகாவா ராயினும் நாகாக்க காவாக்கால்
சோகாப்பர் சொல்லிழுக்குப் பட்டு.

Translation: Whatever besides you leave unguarded, guard your tongue; otherwise errors of speech and the consequent misery will ensue.

அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 128
ஒன்றானுந் தீச்சொல் பொருட்பயன் உண்டாயின்
நன்றாகா தாகி விடும்.

Translation: If a man’s speech be productive of a single evil, all the good by him will be turned into evil.

அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 129
தீயினாற் சுட்டபுண் உள்ளாறும் ஆறாதே
நாவினாற் சுட்ட வடு.

Translation: The wound which has been burnt in by fire may heal, but a wound burnt in by the tongue will never heal.

In my own words: If we are not able to control all of our five senses, then the least we should do is to control what we speak, otherwise we will face misery or bad consequences for saying bad things. It is simply because, if our message contains even a single 'bad' word, the whole message will be seen as bad thus giving bad impression to others. People who are hurt by our 'bad' word may remember it for a long time or will never forget it. Hmm.. sounds very familiar ??

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Couplet 130

அதிகாரம் : அடக்கமுடைமை
குறள் : 130
கதங்காத்துக் கற்றடங்கல் ஆற்றுவான் செவ்வி
அறம்பார்க்கும் ஆற்றின் நுழைந்து.


Translation: Virtue, seeking for an opportunity, will come into the path of that man who, possessed of learning and self-control, guards himself against anger.

In my own words: If we have a continuously learning attitude and at the same time able to control & manage our anger, we will be able to reach moral excellence. Sounds tough but do-able right ??

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Couplet 273

அதிகாரம் : கூடாவொழுக்கம்
குறள் : 273
வலியில் நிலைமையான் வல்லுருவம் பெற்றம்
புலியின்தோல் போர்த்துமேய்ந் தற்று.


Translation: The assumed appearance of power, by a man who has no power (to restrain his senses and perform austerity), is like a cow feeding on grass covered with a tiger’s skin.

In my own words: Although we try to portray our strengths and power, our inability to control our five senses or emotions will actually show/display our weaknesses. So for example, if we want to protect or guard ourselves from our enemy, we need to be emotionally strong (intelligent) as well apart from being physically strong or knowing martial arts !!

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Couplet 301, 302

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 301
செல்லிடத்துக் காப்பான் சினங்காப்பான் அல்லிடத்துக்
காக்கின்என் காவாக்கால் என்?

Translation: Anger against the weak is wrong; It is futile against the strong.

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 302
செல்லா இடத்துச் சினந்தீது செல்லிடத்தும்
இல்அதனின் தீய பிற.

Translation: Anger is bad, even when it cannot injure; when it can injure; there is no greater evil.

In my own words: Well, it is wrong to be angry over weaker people than us (we may make them afraid of or hate us) and it is plain stupid to show anger on those who are much stronger than us (we may invite their wrath and possible negative reaction on us). It is worst still, if our anger turned into endangering others. That is considered evil !! So what is the point of being angry or showing our anger at all. There is probably a better way to handle or manage our anger. If someone is making us angry, we need to face them and be assertive (talk about it to them in a calm manner) but not aggressive (show anger). This is easier said than done but we must try our best.

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Couplet 303, 304, 305

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 303
மறத்தல் வெகுளியை யார்மாட்டும் தீய
பிறத்தல் அதனான் வரும்.

Translation: Off with wrath with any one. It is the source of sin and pain.

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 304
நகையும் உவகையும் கொல்லும் சினத்தின்
பகையும் உளவோ பிற.

Translation: Is there a greater enemy than anger, which kills both laughter and joy ?

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 305
தன்னைத்தான் காக்கின் சினங்காக்க காவாக்கால்
தன்னையே கொல்லுஞ் சினம்.

Translation: If a man would guard himself, let him guard against anger; if he do not guard it, anger will kill him.

In my own words: There is no point of being angry because it is us who will suffer (by feeling the pain of being angry). It is us who are are going to be unhappy by being angry. Additionally, anger may turn us to be aggressive and harm others as well as us and invite more sufferings including getting us to risk our future or even loose our life literally. Therefore, it is very important to control and manage our anger.

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Couplet 306

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 306
சினமென்னும் சேர்ந்தாரைக் கொல்லி இனமென்னும்
ஏமப் புணையைச் சுடும்.

Translation: The fire of anger will burn up even the pleasant raft of friendship.

In my own words: Our anger will also make us loose our friends. How bad!!

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Couplet 307

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 307
சினத்தைப் பொருளென்று கொண்டவன் கேடு
நிலத்தறைந்தான் கைபிழையா தற்று.

Translation: Destruction will come upon him who regards anger as a good thing, as surely as the hand of him who strikes the ground will not fail.

In my own words: If we have the habit of being angry, we are going suffer and continuously feel the pain

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Couplet 308

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 308
இணர்எரி தோய்வன்ன இன்னா செயினும்
புணரின் வெகுளாமை நன்று.

Translation: Though one commit things against you as painful (to bear) as if a bundle of fire had been thrust upon you, it will be well, to refrain, if possible, from anger.

In my own words: It seems to be a wise move not to be angry over someone who have or are causing sufferings to us. Wow! this seems to be a really tough one to follow and practice but I guess the intent is to protect us from more sufferings due to our anger.

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Couplet 309

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 309
உள்ளிய தெல்லாம் உடனெய்தும் உள்ளத்தால்
உள்ளான் வெகுளி எனின்.

Translation: If a man never indulges anger in his heart, he will at once obtain whatever he has thought of.

In my own words: If we are able to refrain from being angry, we will be able to fully focus on our thoughts and energy to achieve what we originally planned or intended.

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Couplet 310

அதிகாரம் : வெகுளாமை
குறள் : 310
இறந்தார் இறந்தார் அனையர் சினத்தைத்
துறந்தார் துறந்தார் துணை.

Translation: Those, who give way to excessive anger, are no better than dead men; but those, who are freed from it, are equal to those who are freed (from death).

In my own words: If we are not able to manage our anger properly, we are as as good as dead !! . no use to anybody. And we are able to manage it properly, we will be free from sufferings and can be useful to others especially to ourselves.

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Couplet 360

அதிகாரம் : மெய்யுணர்தல்
குறள் : 360
காமம் வெகுளி மயக்கம் இவ்முன்றன்
நாமம் கெடக்கெடும் நோய்.

Translation: If the very names of these three things, desire, anger, and confusion of mind, be destroyed, then will also perish evils (which flow from them).

In my own words: If we are able to clear our mind from being confused and angry as well as able to delay gratification, then we will be free from sorrowand difficulties.

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I believe there are many more Kural on emotional intelligence. Will post a second part of this blog post later when I have the chance ...



Friday, June 26, 2009

Cool Thirukkural Musicals

I came across these cool videos during my research on Thirukkural. Check them out ...

1. Thirukkural Maraimozhi

2. Thirukkural Remix

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Haze In Penang, June 2009

The picture on the left is taken a few days ago [June 20, 2009] from my apartment aiming at the Penang International Airport. I can't see any airplanes :-(.

In these past few weeks, there were many newspaper reports on the haze problem.

I wondered why we keep having this haze problem??

Well it is caused by open burning in Sumatra !! That is what almost everyone in Malaysia says especially politicians. Sounds like a very easy answer to escape from being responsible and accountable on this issue.

On the other hand, Indonesian officials says that is not true. It happens in Indonesian soil but culprits are not Indonesians!

" ... Indonesian Consul-General in Malaysia Moeni Soenanda told Malaysian reporters this month that "checks" revealed that "none of the companies" involved in open burning were Indonesian.

"The companies involved in illegal logging and open burning are all foreign," he said without naming any company.


Anyway, I don't remember facing haze some 10 or 15 years ago during my schooling days. Is open burning a new phenomenon ? I don't think so. I wondered why only now we are having this issue of haze due to open burning. This article has the answer

"In the past, open burning did not lead to haze since land clearing exercises were always timed with the seasonal changes. after the land clearing exercise, the rainy season would avail itself on time ..."

Oops !! looks like mother nature have stopped clearing up the mess we are creating. Just look at the many damages that we are doing to our beloved earth and expect mother earth to correct them. We have taken too many things for granted especially our environment.

Unfortunately, open burning does not happen in Sumatra alone. We have our fair share of open burning incidents.

The Selangor state government is taking some actions on this. But this is very short-term solution. It seems that open burning is a cheap way for farmers to clear their land. So they are going to continue with it. Can the government work closely with these farmers to avoid open burning? I guess that will ensure a sustainable solution and the key learning can be proliferated to other states of Malaysia as well as to our Indonesians government and farmers.

According to this blog post, Indonesian government is taking lots of actions too, unfortunately it does not seems to be effective.

Interestingly there is something called ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, an environmental agreement between all ASEAN nations signed in 2002 and became into force on November 25, 2003. Unfortunately Indonesia, despite being the main 'player' for the whole issue, has not ratified the agreement. I wonder why ??

I guess what is key now is not trying to understand how to solve it, probably many experts have provided the suggestions and recommendations, but rather executing them. All the countries must show strong will to address and resolve this issue, starting with getting Indonesia to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution as soon as possible.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

An analysis on Malaysian Environmental Laws

My focus will be to scan through a few key environmental laws that I think are important and try to find the weaknesses in them to understand why pollution and environmental degradation still happens despite Malaysia having many laws on Environment.

I will start with Environment Quality Act 1974, its no brainer right !!

Environment Quality Act 1974 (EQA 1974)

The "key" law is the Environment Quality Act 1974. Its purpose are the prevention, abatement, control of pollution and enhancement of the environment, and for purposes connected therewith.

Among others, this Act calls for the establishment of a Environmental Quality Council (established in 1977) to advise the Minister of Environment*. The council consists of representatives from various ministries* (1 representative each from Environment, International Trade, Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs, Agricultural, Human Resources, Transport, Health) , 1 representatives from Sabah, Sarawak, representatives from various industries (1 representative each from petroleum, oil palm, rubber, manufacturing), 1 academician and 2 representatives from registered societies knowledgeable and having interests on environment.

Since each each of them have equal voting rights, the number stakeholders should be in balance too. The council settings seems to be concentrated with reps from industries, who, many will agree, are the culprit for most of the environment degradation and destruction in Malaysia. The council should have more places allocated for registered bodies/NGOs which has interests on protecting and preserving the environment. Guess what ?? Only in 1986 were 2 NGOs appointed into the council (The Sun). What about consumer groups ? We should have them in the council too. In short, we need a good check and balance mechanism in important councils like this Environmental Quality Council.

This Act also calls for the establishment of a Environmental Fund. The money will be used to cover the costs of cleaning up a pollution, prevention from further pollution, encourage conservation as well as for research purposes. It is expected that those producing, transporting or storing oil, environmentally hazardous or waste products to contribute to this fund. A good idea but definitely not sufficient with the rate of pollution we are encountering now.

I guess a portion of our income tax should also be channeled to this fund. In fact, the government should impose environment tax on all industries and this tax money should be channeled to this Environment Fund. This should be on top of the regular business tax that they are paying.

There were a total of 5 amendments to this act. However, most of them are centered around wordings and summon/fine value increments over the years. Nothing substantial.

There are many related regulations of this Act that has been enacted but first let's go back in time to touch on Waters Act 1920.

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Waters Act 1920 (Act 418)

Perhaps one of the oldest environmental law of modern Malaysia. Its purpose is to provide control of rivers and streams. Interestingly it only covers 6 states and 1 federal territory. How about other states ?? And there are differences between each state. Is this why we have a new Act [Water Services Industry Act 2006].

Since land and water comes under the purview of individual states, all powers resides on the state authority (State Secretary).

True to its purpose, this Act does not attempt to prevent pollution, rather just to control it. This is not good enough!!. There seems to be loop holes in this Act, whereby licensed pollution can still happen.

It is very unfortunate that we fail to see that rivers and streams are important if not critical water source for farming, animals and poor people. We fail to see that rivers and streams must be prevented from being polluted at any cost. Rivers and streams and its contents (living and not living) are important part of us and they should be protected.

We need stronger legislation that not only protects the environment but encourages everybody to work towards sustaining it.

Water Services Industry Act 2006

The purpose of this Act is to provide for and regulate water supply services and sewerage services.

Under this law, contaminating water is a serious issue. You will be punished with death or imprisonment up to 20 years with whipping if found guilty of contaminating the water supply system and causing death. Unfortunately the same seriousness is not shown in the Waters Act, whereby rivers polluters are only fined RM1000.00. Potential polluters can even buy license to pollute.

This Act calls for the establishment of a Water Industry Fund whereby the money is to be used basically to ensure sustainability and qualitative improvement of water supply.

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Now, back to the Environment Quality Act regulations. Two of the regulations that I scanned through are:-
Again (as noticed in the Waters Act 1920), the punishment for offense for air polluters is only a maximum of RM10,000 or 2 years imprisonment. I doubt this type of punishment will or can deter business especially big business from polluting our air. And you know what ?? All these offenses are compoundable, meaning that the culprit can just settle the case by paying the compound and don't have to go to court. It may be even cheaper for culprits to pay the compound then take efforts to reduce their pollution !!!

The legislators should actually make all these offences not compoundable !! Ever wondered why we have haze these days?? It is unheard of those days !! There is even a Wikipedia article on the haze situation in Malaysia. The problem is we are blaming Indonesian for it when we ourselves are not adequately protecting our environment.

The sources of pollution is well known according to DOE but the questions are what are they (DOE) doing about it and are they doing enough to stop the pollutions ?? Enacting laws is just the first step. Educating the polluters and working closely with them to reduce and eventually totally stop pollution is as important to have a holistic approach of protecting and nurturing our environment. I guess Malaysian authorities (federal & state governments) are still stuck with "ownership" issues as pointed in this report ..

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" The state governments have authority over matters relating to land use planning,
agriculture, forestry, fishery, water resources, but the federal government has authority
in regard to environmental affairs. While the collection, treatment and disposal of
municipal waste also come under local government administration (Global
Environmental Forum, 2000).

This division of powers and roles among the various layers of government in relation to
environmental protection and management makes the implementation of integrated
planning a real challenge. Often, this institutional weakness is cited as a hindrance to
adopting an integrated approach to environmental management and enforcement of
laws related to the environment (Ramakrishna, 2002). "

excerpt from Sustainability in Penangite Accent

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What stroke me is this part of the regulation, see below

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Regulation 7. Application for special management of scheduled wastes
(1) A waste generator may apply to the Director General in writing to have the scheduled wastes generated from their particular facility or process excluded from being treated, disposed of or recovered in premises or facilities other than at the prescribed premises or on-site treatment or recovery facilities.
(2) An application under subregulation (1) shall be submitted to the Director General in accordance with the guidelines for special management of scheduled wastes as prescribed by the Director General and shall be accompanied by fee of three hundred ringgit and shall not be refunded.
(3) If the Director General is satisfied with the application made under subregulation (1), the Director General may grant a written approval either with or without conditions.
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What does it tell us ? A potential polluter (waste generator) can even apply (under what circumstances is not specified) to dispose his/her dangerous and harmful waste without being treated. The risk is merely RM300.00 in the form of application fee. Another loophole !! Making the offence compundable also does not help to relay any concrete and serious message to offenders not to even think about polluting the environment.


National Forestry Policy 1978 (Revised 1993)

Now let's look at forest protection in Malaysia. Guess what? We have a very loose forest protection laws. Why? Economic development is of higher priority than environmental well being.

Forests in Malaysia is seen by the Federal and various state governments as one major source of income. So the law talks about how to sustainably manage the forest and not really on how to strictly protect it. May be not a bad idea.

In fact, few assessments done and reported by a UN body shows that there are continuous improvement on sustainable forest management in few states of Malaysia. However, a PhD research done by Kanta Kumari casts reasonable doubts on this.

I guess we must not take the forest for granted. Instead, we should start reducing our dependence on timber activities and eventually reduce destruction of the forests. There are also problems of illegal logging, reported here and here. These illegal must be addressed by the government with utmost urgency. I guess it must be lucrative enough for culprits to continue with these illegal activities. So the legislators must enact a much tougher law & improve enforcement while at the same educate and encourage the public to report these activities to the authorities.


Conclusion & recommendation

  1. There must be strong will by the government of the day to phase out and close down all industries that are producing harmful wastes. We should start to think long term benefits health and environment and eventually economic benefit out of it of not having these industries and not short term economic benefit of having these industries
  2. All the environmental laws and regulations must be scrutinized again and revised to eliminate its' loop holes. The Environment Ministries Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should include the "improvement" made to environmental laws.
  3. The enactment of environmental laws seems to exclude important stakeholders namely the public. The public must be consulted extensively by legislators.
  4. Exceptions must be minimized. The absolute power given to Director-General to give exceptions must be revoked and given to a council instead. In the instance of exception being considered, locals and other dependents such as those farming along the river should be consulted.
  5. In addition to point # 4 above, the membership of various councils should include representatives of the public including consumers associations and environmental interest groups.
  6. Punishment (fines and jail terms) should commensurate the seriousness of the offense. Environment pollution must be seen as a serious offense because it affects not only present generation but many generations to come. We as humans must also realize that we are sharing this earth with others, flora & fauna. Environmental offenses should be made NOT compoundable.
  7. All producers of waste must be made fully responsible to treat their waste sufficient in order not to harm the environment. There should be no exception given to anybody in whatsoever situation.
  8. In addition along with point # 7 above, the government should be more proactive to help the small players to treat the wastes before being thrown out to sea, river or even land-fill.

Notes
* I intentionally did not use the exact names of the ministries as it have changed and can still change in future.