Save Sabah!

Michael Kaung

| February 17, 2011

Conservationists in Sabah can celebrate now that a highly contentious project has been scrapped.

KOTA KINABALU: The Barisan Nasional (BN) government has scrapped plans to build the controversial coal-powered plant in Lahad Datu.

Caving in to pressure to keep Sabah clean and green, Chief Minister Musa Aman said the government had scrapped “once and for all” any bid to put up a  coal-powered plant anywhere in Sabah in the interest of the environment.

Making the announcement after chairing the state Cabinet meeting today, he said both the federal and state governments have agreed to pursue alternative energy sources like natural gas to meet the state’s energy needs.

“On behalf of the state government and the people of Sabah, I wish to accord my heartfelt thanks to our Prime Minister (Najib Tun Razak) for not only being attentive to our power supply needs but also for his grave concern for our environment,” Musa said.

He added that Najib has told Tenaga Nasional Bhd and Petronas to come up with alternative clean energy fuels such as natural gas to replace the proposed 300MW coal-fired plant in Lahad Datu.

Najib, he said, understood that while there was a need to boost the state’s power supply, it could not be done at the expense of the people’s welfare and the environment.

“The prime minister understands that one of Sabah’s greatest assets is its natural attractions and still somewhat pristine environment.

“While Sabah needs to increase power supply to meet increasing development, the state cannot afford to put its natural environment at risk,” he added.

Protect the environment

Musa said that it was the paramount duty of a responsible government to give priority to protecting the environment and its people.

“We must protect the environment, especially when it is the biggest tourism draw,” he said, adding that the growth of eco-tourism depended how best the state kept its natural environment and not expose it to unnecessary risks.

“I know there have been certain objections to the proposed coal plant. Today is proof that such objections have not fallen on deaf ears,” he added.

A proposed coal-powered plant in Lahad Datu came under intense public criticism and a detailed environment impact assessment was rejected by the Department of Environment.

However, Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, through its subsidiary Lahad Datu Energy Sdn Bhd, had made attempts to re-submit the report in the hope of starting construction of the plant in Tunku in Lahad Datu.

NGOs, including the Sabah Environment Protection Association (Sepa), had started campaigning more than two years ago to prevent the construction of such a plant. Consequently, the site of the plant was shifted three times due to bitter opposition from residents in the east coast
of the state.

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/02/20/doing-away-with-coal-plant-part-of-nem/

Popularity: 32% [?]

Friday, September 17, 2010

Images of devastating effect of Coal Ash pollution in China, the same effect that might happen in here in Sabah, if we let them build the coal plant in Kg. Sinakut.

1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/sep/16/pollution-coal-ash-china#/?picture=366690638&index=0

2)  http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/china/en/press/reports/coal-ash-report-english-2010.pdf

Harmful substances Health impacts :

Antimony          Eye irritation, heart damage, lung problems
Arsenic             Cancer, skin lesions, hand warts
Barium              Gastrointestinal problems, muscle weakness, heart damage
Beryllium           Lung cancer, pneumonia, respiratory problems
Boron               Reproductive problems, gastrointestinal problems
Cadmium          Lung disease, kidney disease, cancer
Chromium        Cancer, ulcers and other stomach problems
Cobalt              Lung, heart, liver and kidney problems; dermatitis
Copper            Respiratory and nervous system damage, liver disease
Lead               Nervous system damage, brain damage, development and behavioural problems
Manganese     Nervous system damage, muscle problems, neurological problems
Mercury           Cognitive deficiency, stunted growth, behavioural problems
Molybdenum    Mineral imbalance, anemia, developmental problems
Nickel               Cancer, lung problems, allergic reactions
Selenium         Birth defects, impaired bone growth in children
Vanadium        Birth defects; lung, throat and eye problems
Zinc                 Gastrointestinal and reproductive problems
Chlorides         High blood pressure
Fluorides         Dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis
Nitrates           Reacts in stomach to form carcinogenic substances
Sulphates        Stimulates the gastrointestinal tract

Table 1 The health impacts of key harmful substances present in coal ash .

Popularity: 12% [?]

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:45

By Queville To
KOTA KINABALU: The controversial proposal to build Sabah’s first coal-fired power plant has taken a new twist with the arrival of a new pro-coal pressure group, the People’s Assembly Action Committee (PAAC).
The newly formed pro-coal lobby has incurred the wrath of anti coal-fired power plant coalition, Green SURF (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future), for claiming that the people in the east coast of Sabah support the project.
Green SURF’s Wong Tack, who is also Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) president, challenged PAAC chairman A Nagaraju to give full details of his claim.
He said Nagaraju should also reveal who exactly are the people that he was referring to and as to who was backing his campaign.
“The people have been saying no to this project since it was proposed in Silam, Lahad Datu and then was forced to shift location to Sandakan due to health and environmental concerns and then driven out of that district also.
“We formed Green SURF last year when Sinakut (in Lahad Datu) was proposed as the third site. We have seen support for the coalition grow from day to day, and even individuals have come in to help us.
“We would like to ask Nagaraju who are the majority of people in Sabah’s east coast who want this project,” Wong said in a statement today.
He also noted that PAAC had just emerged from nowhere, following the rejection of the Detailed Environment Impact Assessment (DEIA) by the Federal Department of Environment.
Wong was responding to a recent media report in which Nagaraju claimed that his group represented those on the east coast of the state who wanted economic development.

Rejected three times

He also questioned PAAC’s tactics to attract people to a pro-coal rally organised by them in Lahad Datu on Aug 21, pointing out that freebies like caps and t-shirts were given out to lure the public.
The Federal Department of Environment (DOE) rejected in mid-August the Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) that was submitted by Lahad Datu Energy for the 300 megawatt plant on the shores of the Sulu Sulawesi Marine Eco-region (SSME).
Wong noted that Green SURF had received close to 500 copies of letters from the public, addressed to the DOE questioning the DEIA and calling on the government to scrap the project.
He said that even a poll conducted among members of the Lahad Datu Chinese Chamber of Commerce showed that 86.2 per cent objected to the proposed plant.
The project has now been rejected three times and that any appeal for it to proceed is an insult to the people and the democratic process, he said.
State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Masidi Manjun subscribed to this, he said, when he was quoted as saying he hoped any decision by the project proponent to re-submit a DEIA was “dictated by conscience and public opinion.”
“This whole issue has angered the people of Sabah. We wonder why this Action Committee is so eager to see the continuation of this project when we should be focusing our attention on finding alternatives to solve the power shortage problem,” he said.

Against Copenhagen agreement

Though the plan to build the plant has come up against strong and unrelenting grassroots opposition, the federal government has largely turned a deaf ear to their pleas, arguing that the energy plant is necessary to power Sabah and stop blackouts.
Critics have reportedly said that the coal plant will damage fish stocks with chlorine and thermal discharges, upend the lives of locals dependent on fishing, and devastate eco-tourism in the region.
In addition, the coal plant goes directly against Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s agreement at Copenhagen to reduce the country’s carbon emission intensity by 40 percent by 2020.
Despite these concerns, the plant has continued to move ahead possibly due to nepotism, corruption, and kick-backs, according to sources who requested anonymity.
They claim nearly a quarter of the cost of the coal plant or RM400 million has been paid to the contracted company, China National Electric Equipment Company (CNEEC) to build the power plant.
The thinking at the time was that the project would be approved as coal is listed in the country’s five-fuel policy.
When first proposed it was estimated at RM1.1 billion, then RM1.3 billion for the second site, and now RM1.7 billion, a RM400 million jump from one site to the next.
No one knows if the total cost includes the cost of building a transmission line, or the route this transmission line will follow. It also not known which coal mines in Kalimantan will supply the plant or how long they plan to export coal from Indonesia.

TNB’s role

Much of the speculation on the relentless pressure to build the plant centres around national power utility, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and its chairman Leo Moggie, a former federal minister.
TNB has always been pushing for the coal plant and an advertisement was even published in several Sabah newspapers arguing for such a plant.
In addition to this allegation, sources said that the deal for the coal plant is not transparent and may be linked to politically connected individuals.
They said certain well-connected citizens control the import of coal from Kalimantan and and according to published plans, the coal plant will be powered by mines in Indonesian Borneo.
Environmentalists fear that if the plant goes ahead, it will spur coal mining in Sabah’s own backyard, destroying the state’s last pristine eco-systems.
The Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) at the University of California Berkeley, which was hired by Green SURF to conduct an energy audit for Sabah found that power from either biomass or hydropower could provide the same power at a competitive price with coal.
Apart from SEPA, the other members of Green SURF are Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP), WWF-Malaysia, Malaysian Nature Society (Sabah branch) and Partners of Community Organisations (Pacos).

http://freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/politics/sabah-and-sarawak/9755-pro-coal-group-adds-new-twist-to-coal-controversy

Popularity: 10% [?]

Daily Express Forum , 15th Aug 2010 .

The DEIA report on the Felda coal fired power plant suggests SESB and TNB are not honest on the damage the environment will take. SESB Managing Director Barahim Din should start being frank. My golden question to him is whether he is doing all this for an eventual Vice President promotion in TNB?

Tell us Sabahan who are the mysterious main guys behind Lahad Datu Energy (LDE)? Tell us who you are trying to better, if any.

Tell all the truth Baharin, you seem to be talking about integrity far too long and far too much.

Baharin, think, think and think what damage you will be leaving behind to us Sabahans to live with. You will be in Kuala Lumpur seeing Sabah from a distance with all of us suffering from very poor health problems. Stop being selfish. Tell the Government that gas is the best option and leave peacefully eternally.

If gas (belonging to Sabah) can be piped to Bintulu in Sarawak, why is it not possible to pipe it to the east coast of Sabah? Are Sabahans thought to be that stupid?

Baharin should also explain how he plans to convince about the Saidi 700 minutes target for SESB.

SESB’s Saidi has breached the 700 minutes target. Hopefully you are not cooking the figures so that Minister Peter Chin will not lose his job as he had promised.

Barisan Nasional cannot afford to risk losing votes in Sabah just because of SESB in the next general election.

In SESB, a smoking room has even been approved on the second floor of Wisma SESB for a senior official to smoke and lazy around. Sabah’s tax payers paid for the construction of this glass room. It was made to fulfill only one man’s need, although few others have since joined him in the smoking sessions.

The MACC should investigate this abuse of power and money. The public should also visit this latest tourist attraction in SESB. See how lavishly SESB is spending your money.

Another senior official had a tailor girlfriend who got the contract for sewing two different jackets (grey and red) for SESB staff all over Sabah.

Following a publication of a letter regarding this in Forum, tenders were immediately called and three more tailors have since been included. That’s the beauty about the Daily Express and why it is Sabah’s best newspaper.

Then there was the wrongful dismissal of an executive where SESB had to pay RM200,000 as compensation. MACC should come in to investigate the staff uniform tailoring and the wrongful dismissal compensation payment.

May I ask what is terribly wrong with a Sabahan that he or she cannot be the SESB Managing Director? Sabahan will do a better job and understand Sabahans better.

The time has come for SESB to be under the Sabah Government with a Sabahan CEO. Remember that 2,400 SESB staff and their family members and friends and associates can mean lots of votes.

After 12 years of TNB rule over SESB we did not see much improvement and the general public knows that very well. We say loud and clear that we want a Sabahan to lead SESB and SESB returned to the Sabah Government.

Saidi 4000 minutes

Popularity: 21% [?]

LETTERS/SURAT

Monday, 16 August 2010 admin-s

Your words in public are about listening to the rakyat (people) and hearing their views. A sizeable portion of the rakyat of Sabah has been doing everything within their power to be heard by you. To no avail.

By Cynthia Ong Gaik Suan

Dear Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak,

I write to you as a deeply concerned and saddened citizen of Malaysia.

For most of the 45 years of my life, I have been proud to be Malaysian. Recently, I have become heartbroken to be Malaysian.

I am profoundly grateful to write this with the support of both my local communities in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo and California, USA, and a larger world community. 

That said, I take full ownership of and sole responsibility for the views articulated in this letter; I express them from my stand as a mother, an earth citizen and a leader.

I founded and led a public charity and non profit organisation both in Malaysia and in the US, to bridge between worlds and build partnerships for ecological conservation. 

I have been at the front lines of the founding and mobilisation of Green SURF (Sabah Unite to RePower the Future), the civil society movement opposing the construction of the 300 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Lahad Datu, Sabah, on the edge of the Coral Triangle, one of three of the world’s most bio-diverse ecosystems.

You know. You signed the 6-nation declaration between Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Solomon Islands to collectively protect this 1.6 billion acres of ocean. You also know of course of your pledge at Copenhagen to reduce carbon emission intensity by up to 40 per cent by 2020.

You likely also know that the plant will displace fishing communities who have been there for a long time — irreparably contaminating their livelihoods forever. And if you listened, you would also know that they do not want the “development” that your government is imposing on them.

One of the priorities of Green SURF was to study clean energy alternatives to the coal-plant, and propose them to the government.

We collectively invested tremendous time and resources to identify and commission the expertise of Professor Daniel Kammen at Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory of University of California, Berkeley to conduct the Clean Energy Options for Sabah report. We had no notion of the outcome of the study, and results showed that Sabah is in an exceptional position to shift towards clean energy due to the availability of natural resources.

We are in fact in an opportune position to lead the nation and the region in clean energy — the kind of leadership the world so urgently needs now.

I wonder if you know that Sabah is the last coal power-free frontier of Borneo. FYI, the 5 core NGOs in Green SURF are amongst the largest, oldest and most recognized conservation groups in Sabah and Malaysia — collectively responsible for most of the conservation work in the nation, with partnerships that span the world.

We have tried every avenue available to communicate to you the results of our findings and to engage in discussion about the future of energy for Sabah.  After months of unsuccessful attempts to meet with you, I can only conclude that you do not want to meet with us.

This confuses and disturbs me. Your words in public are about listening to the rakyat (people) and hearing their views. A sizeable portion of the rakyat of Sabah has been doing everything within their power to be heard by you. To no avail.

We have given you the benefit of the doubt that word is not getting to you, and yet we have met with those around you who promised they would convey our message to you. Many months, memos, reports, letters, faxes, emails and phone calls later, and we have not received a single response from you or any member of your administration.

We also did our best at state level government, and have huge support from within the government but ultimately the message is that this is untouchable because “ini Najib mau” (Najib wants this).

Sir, my most consistent experience of your administration is stone walls, arrogance and insincerity. I am shocked by the behavior of the leadership of my nation.  I find it patronising, archaic, oppressive, blatantly and self-righteously elitist and top-down. 

I do not experience your administration as democratic, transparent, open, accountable or responsible. There is a deep incongruence between what you are projecting externally and what we have experienced internally.

I can only surmise that you intentionally run your administration in this manner. Otherwise, it would mean that your leadership is incompetent and ineffective.

I am angry, and I am not willing to accept systemic disempowerment of our people. I am writing this open letter as a last resort. Sabahans are speaking up because we are deeply troubled and scared about the fate of our ecological and cultural legacy, and what we will be able to hand down to our future generations.

Please show true leadership and listen. You and your administration have much to do to regain a modicum of respect amongst many Sabahans.

If 1 Malaysia is more than a PR campaign and is truly intended “to provide a free and open forum to discuss the things that matter deeply to us as a Nation”, please walk your talk.

Yours sincerely, for the children,

Cynthia Clare Ong Gaik Suan.

http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/letterssurat/33839-open-letter-to-pm

Popularity: 2% [?]