8/14/2019 TheSun 2009-11-03 Page12 Only Pure Intentions in Quit
Call Please
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speak up!12 theSun | TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 2009
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TELLING IT AS IT IS
Only pure intentions
in quit call please
Stop the war against nature
Show us the figures on old carsIT is surprising that the
govern-ment wants to subject cars olderthan 10 years to an
inspectionfor road tax renewals from nextyear. The reasons do not
make anysense to the owners. First, we arefar from being a
developed nationthat needs regulations that furtherburden the
public, especially thelower-income groups.
Second, have the relevantagencies done their homework
inrecognising that many owners ofold cars have maintained
theirvehicles in tip-top condition. I am aproud owner of a
15-year-old Nis-san Sunny that has served me wellwith minimal
maintenance cost.It is economical and and has notonce broken
down.
Mandatory inspections willrequire us to spend at least onewhole
day at Puspakom and it alsomeans forking out more money. Isthis
policy in line with the 1Malay-sia concept? Before such a movewas
suggested, the authoritiesshould have shown the public
thestatistics as to how many vehiclesmore than 10 years old are
thecause of accidents.
This policy is not only a burdento car owners but also brings
usto the issue of priorities. The au-thorities seem to be pushing
thosewith old cars to buy new models.Such policies do not reflect
wellfor a caring government. What willthe recourse be for a
60-year-oldretiree when told that his or her
old vehicle is not roadworthy.Which bank will provide an
elderlyapplicant a car loan to buy a newcar? It can be depressing
to theretiree and his or her familysmobility may be
compromised.
And last, what are the inspec-tion tests? It will be improper
toapply the same standards used fornew cars. Will this be
transparentso as to ensure that elements ofcorruption do not creep
in?
It is high time the relatedagencies do a reality check on
theground before making policies.Retrospective corrections seemto
be the order of the day.
Narinder Pal SinghShah Alam
WITH all the recent focus on war crimes and theevils of war,
there is a much overlooked war, thewar against nature. And Malaysia
wages this war asresolutely as any country.
At the receiving end are not only some of ourindigenous people
like the Penans but also our bio-logical storehouse of plants and
animals that God has
endowed to our land.Logging companies, in their quest for
timber, have
for decades waged war against nature and tribalpeople in Sarawak
with great success.
Our plantation companies have joined this on-slaught against
nature. In Sabah, for instance, whatwas once prime lowland forest
is now occupied by1.3 million hectares of oil palm plantations.
This hasdriven forest dwellers such as the orangutan, the sunbear
and the rhinoceros to the brink of extinction.
In July, a company announced its intention toconvert 100,000ha
of forested land belonging tonative people in Sarawak and Sabah to
oil palmplantations.
But Malaysian companies do not stop their waragainst nature at
our borders. They are active in manycountries from Latin America
and Africa to Indonesiaand Papua New Guinea. Recently, a Malaysian
com-pany signed a deal to convert 220,000ha of land to oilpalm and
rubber plantations in Liberia.
The chief minister of Sarawak has also been waginghis own
relentless war against nature. Besides givingcarte blanche to
logging and oil palm companies, hehas launched a grand plan to
build 12 mega hydro-electric dams, in a joint venture with state
companiesfrom China. This will destroy and flood vast expansesof
forested lands that are also home to our native
people. This is being undertaken despite the statehaving no need
for additional energy. To add insult toinjury, the Environmental
Impact Assessment for eachof these projects has not been released
to the publicor to stakeholders.
In the nineties, the deforestation rate in Malaysiaaveraged
78,000ha a year but in the early years of this
decade, this has surged to 140,000ha a year.Most of our lowland
forest habitats have already
been ravaged. There are still forests left in Malaysiabut this
is mainly because they have been naturallydefended by our
inaccessible rugged mountainousterrain in the interior. But our
businessmen and politi-cians ably supported by engineering
consultants havenow begun to encroach into these regions with
theiringenious schemes to wage war for money.
At the individual level, every polluter who pollutesour drains
and rivers is also waging war againstnature. Every enforcement
officer or director generalwho accepts a bribe so that an unlawful
activity suchas the discharge of untreated effluent or the
poachingof our wildlife can continue is guilty of the same.
Our war against nature has been led to a largeextent by a
runaway development agenda under-pinned by cronyism, corruption,
crippling of publicinstitutions, removal of checks and balances and
theviolation of human rights.
Yes, we ought to welcome the call to name andshame those of us
individuals and companies whohave been responsible in one way or
another for anact of war.
JC Tansen
Petaling Jaya
by Leow Mei Chern
SOMETIMES, we miss theforest for the trees. Often,we fail to
humanise those
different from us; somethingthat must be reflected uponafter
watching Prisoners of aWhite God which was shownat the
FreedomFilmFest KL2009. In this documentary,Czech researcher
TomRyka investigates wrong-doings against the Akhas a small
mountain ethnictribe in the Thai and Laotianmountains.
The film documents the change expe-rienced by the Akhas over two
years andtheir reality with forced relocation, culturalgenocide and
many other unjust violationsby certain missionaries and
developmentalprojects. These were dramatically capturedand
narrated, giving an insight into therealities faced by indigenous
people andmarginalised groups.
However, concerns with issues of objec-tivity and dramatic
techniques used in this
film were raised during its post-screeningdiscussion, with some
misgivings over theaccuracy of its title. While it is good to
bediscerning and critical regarding the reli-ability of certain
scenes in the film, perhapsthe more pertinent issue to be
discussedwas about religious aid, or developmentalprojects in
relation to the reality faced bypeople they are supposed to be
helping.
Prisoners of a White God is an apt title,because it beautifully
encompasses thegist of the film by also referring to
thecapitalistic and western development thatthe mainstream all
aspire to. It is essen-tially about bigotry and how
sometimesso-called good intentions can cause harm.The relevance of
this film giving insight intothe reality faced by indigenous or
marginal-ised groups is so much more urgent than,say, whether the
way it was filmed was toodramatic or not.
It would be unfortunate if this insightwere to be understated,
as public opinionis such that it is so easy to overlook therights
of indigenous peoples, and howconvenient it is to accept the
justificationof development without considerationof how
marginalised groups are harmed
in the process. Commonsimplistic assumptions thatindigenous
groups just do notwant progress or that theydo not know whats good
for
them, are still very much alive.Malaysians are no different
inthis indifference, and we needall the help we can to awakenour
public consciousness totruly understand why someare prisoners in
their ownland.
This film is also a reminderof how we ought to be care-
ful in the charity that we do,or with making public or private
entitiesaccountable for what they preach. Plant-ing trees, being
green, and using popularlingo like sustainability and unity notonly
makes good advertising under theguise of corporate social
responsibility orcampaigns, but also distract us from thereality of
any wrongdoings that may occur;if a company publicly appropriates
an envi-ronmental cause, are its business practicesreally green and
are they committing orallowing human rights violations to
occur?
Entities, be it companies, politicians orgovernments, that
appropriate and ride onpopular causes for cheap publicity,
whileperforming hypocritical or unjust acts onthe other hand, are
deceitful to the publicand further restrict our democratic spaceby
usurping and diluting the language usedfor a cause.
Prisoners of a White God is a beautifuldocumentary to be
appreciated for its abil-ity to engage and the honesty of its
agenda,which is the well-being of the Akhas, andin doing so exposes
the dangers of bigotryor the perceived infallibility of certain
or-ganisations. It is also an important reminderthat perhaps we
should all be more criticalabout our own perceptions of how
thingsshould be and the nature of help that wesupport or give
others.
The writer believes that police and stateresources should be
used to fight crimeinstead of monitoring film screenings.Prisoners
of a White God is found onlinelicensed under a Creative
CommonsLicence. Comments: [email protected]
It is good that the prime ministerresponded swiftly to this by
indi-rectly telling Sri Gading to shut histrap, saying it was his
prerogative toappoint Koh.
I dont want to delve too muchinto the politics and I am not
goingto endorse anyone for MCAs leader-ship. Like all Malaysians
partisanand non-partisan all I want to seeis a culmination of the
scandal andthose who wasted RM12.5 billion oftaxpayers money
brought to book.
But I am wondering why hasthere been no dearth of
peopledemanding the heads of those whohad exposed and supported
the
opening of the Pandoras box withregards to PKFZ.Whose message
was Mohamad
sending when he asked Ong andKoh to step down? The
componentparty he represents? His own? Cer-tain businessmen? The
rakyats?
Or Back Benchers Club(BBC) chairman DatukSeri Tiong King
Sing,who is in the thick ofthe scandal?
If Mohamad is reallypushing for account-ability, why he is
silenton Tiongs positionas BBC chairman isbeyond me. Shouldnthe ask
Tiong to quit asBBC chairman until hisname is cleared?
After all, how is he tofunction as BBC chair-man with these
issues hovering
over his head issues he as mem-ber of Parliament and BBC chief
issupposed to question, and not beembroiled in.
Also if he is sincere, then heshould have asked both Ong
andTiong to step aside following claims
that the latter gave theformer RM10 million.
By opening hismouth, Mohamad hasalso exposed himself,with at
least one newsportal claiming busi-ness links. This is yetto be
proven, but oneis reminded that MCAYouth chief Datuk WeeKa Siong
has also beena recent critic of Ong.
While Wee may bevoicing the feelings ofthe majority, his
inten-
tions become questionable if it is
proven that a company supposedlylinked to him had done work for
thefree zone, sub-contracted by Tiongscompany Kuala Dimensi Sdn
Bhd.
It is unfair to accuse Wee ofanything. As he told me the onus
ison the accusers to prove that he had
IT looks like Transport Minister andMCA chief Datuk Seri Ong Tee
Keatis fair game, with the best singlesplayer ever getting hammered
fromall sides. The latest to join the Ongbashing bandwagon is Sri
GadingMP Mohamad Aziz. But what doesraise ones eyebrows is
Mohamadattacking KPI Minister Tan Sri DrKoh Tsu Khoon, saying Mr
NiceGuy should also step down as hehad lost the support of his
constitu-ents, having been defeated in lastyears general
election.
He equated Kohs political set-back to Ong losing the support
ofdelegates as party president at therecent EGM.
What gets ones antenna up isthat Ong began facing a
backlashfollowing his push for full disclo-sure on the Port Klang
Free Zone(PKFZ) scandal.
Likewise, Koh who has man-aged to stay in the shadows for
thislong, suddenly finds the spotlight onhim. Why?
Kohs Gerakan vice-presidentDatuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said atthe
partys AGM on Sunday that thismay also be linked to PKFZ. OnSept 6,
our president as the minister
in charge of key performance index,had only openly stated his
supportfor a royal commission to probe thePKFZ scandal, Teng
said.
It may be a shot in the dark,but it does give rise to some sort
ofspeculation.
received kickbacks.But it is troubling to learn that
the prime minister had to resistcalls from several sectors
within hisown party to remove Ong. DatukSeri Mohd Najib Razak, we
aretold, stood his ground when severalparty members indicated that
fulldisclosure of PKFZ may hurt theircomrades.
I am not insinuating anythingbut I am reminded of the adage
thatpeople in glass houses shouldntcast stones. And as
representativesof the rakyat, politicians should bewhiter than
white with no room forspeculation as to their backgroundand
intentions. (Although, manywould deem it a paradox to
equatepolitics with anything as pure as thecolour white.)
In the meantime, if those run-ning the country and
representingthe rakyat cannot be on the samepage over such a grave
matter as inthe waste of public funds, all I cansay is God save
Malaysia.
Terence did not play dress up toobserve Halloween last week
becausethere are enough hantus masquer-
ading as peoples representativesand guardians of our interests
outthere. He is deputy editor (specialreports & investigations)
and canbe reached at [email protected] and followed on
twitter @Ter-encetheSUN
Down2Earthby Terence Fernandez
[email protected]
FreespaceWhere young views rule
Prisoners in theirown land
