The Rape of Sungai Pulai

Dear Malaysians,
Johor had been a state endowed with vast tracts of coastal mangrove. Note the past tense used.
Ironically, it is also the only state in the country with the highest number of Ramsar sites. The recognition for the protection of wetlands such as mangrove swamp of international importance is awarded to Pulau Kukup, Tanjung Piai and Sungai Pulai in January 2003; all located in the southwest of the state.

The three sites are part and parcel of the bigger Pulai river basin which incidentally is one of the highest fisheries production centers in the country due to its unique geographical location.
In terms of bio-diversity, the wetlands are home to the endangered dugongs, turtles and seahorses as well as being the flyway of migratory birds.

Unfortunately, the eagerness of the state in listing Ramsar sites is not matched by its protection measures.

In the last one decade, the region’s pristine mangrove forests have seen tremendous destructions – from the construction of the Port of Tanjung Pelepas to the setting up of the 2,100MW Tanjung Bin coal-fired power plant to, now, the reclamation of a further 913ha of the forest for a petro-chemical hub.

The development which had largely escaped scrutiny of the Malaysian public had ignored various national laws and guidelines.

Firstly, the approvals of the Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment for the power plant and the petro-chemical hub are highly questionable as the social component of the assessments is sorely inadequate. Coal-fired power plant and petro-chemical hub carry with them inherent environmental and health effects that had yet to be clearly conveyed to the local communities.

Secondly, provision under the Environmental Quality Act (Prescribed Activities) Regulations requires development project encroaching into more than 500ha of coastal wetlands to be subjected to a Detailed EIA which compels the report to be reviewed by the public and not merely a Preliminary EIA.

Thirdly, the Sg Pulai wetlands are clearly identified as Environmentally Sensitive Area Rank 1 by the National Physical Plan – a plan that was approved by the Cabinet and tacitly endorsed by the various state governments.

Forget about scrutiny by public regulatory bodies such as the Department of Environment which is powerless when our legislators i.e. politicians are in bed with corporate evils.
All three projects are operated and owned by various subsidiaries of the public-listed Malaysian Mining Corporation, which, hypocritically, professes to uphold Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (www.mmc.com.my)

To salvage its tarnished image, MMC now attempts to green-wash its activities. To ensure that the strategy is effective, it needs the endorsement of the greenies.

In November, 2007, it enlisted the ‘help’ of none other than the Malaysian Nature Society by funding a coffee-table book project to document, ahem, the rich biological heritage of Sg Pulai.

Recently, it also managed to quell dissenting voices from the fishing communities by compensating some full-time fishermen to the measly sum of RM10,000 each and further promising a monthly RM800 compensation scheme for the next 20 years. So, looks like the fisherfolks are throwing in the towels.

In 2007, using a tried and tested formula of pacifying initial uproars and paying lip-service to the environment, the Mentri Besar had ‘ordered’ the project developers to submit DEIA.

But the Mentri Besar had since turned his back on the environment, ignored the threats posed to food security and potential health problems arising from these development activities in the much-hyped Iskandar Development Region.

This Saturday, in typical oxymoron fashion – ‘destroy first, restore later’- the Mentri Besar of Johor Datuk Ghani Othman will sink his feet into the Sg Pulai mud to plant some mangrove saplings to show the state’s ‘commitment’ to the environment and further greening the image of the environmental crime perpetrator.

Please distribute this message far and wide to those who had never heard of Sg Pulai, will probably never get a chance to experience its beauty but ought to know of this carnage AND hopefully, will stand up against further destruction of our precious, life-giving wetlands.

Citizen Against Destructive Development