Save Sabah!

Published on: Friday, August 20, 2010

Kota Kinabalu: Everyone should respect the decision by the Department of Environment (DOE) to reject the Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) for the proposed coal-fired power plant in Lahad Datu.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun, said the decision by the DOE Director-General was strictly based on facts submitted in the report by the consultants appointed by the proponent of the 300MW plant, which was to be sited at Sinakut in the Dent Peninsular.

“At this point of time, all quarters should respect the decision of the Director-General.

“There is no other ulterior (motive)Éto me it’s basically a professional decision (based on) the public report (on which) everybody have given their piece,” he said, to reporters after opening the Sabah Arts and Photography Society Members Photography exhibition here, Thursday.

Under normal procedures, he said, the project proponent has a choice of scrapping the project or appeal for another DEIA.

“As we all might remember, the Prime Minister and Chief Minister themselves have given an assurance that the Government is going to act based on professional reasoningÉI assure you this (the decision) is one of that,” Masidi said.

“I’ve met those who have given their opinions and I told them in no uncertain terms that the State Government is bound to strictly comply with the Terms of Reference (TOR) provided and prepared for this project.”

To a question on whether another DEIA was in the offing, he said: “(You) have to ask that question to the proponent of the projectÉand of course (if any), I hope it would be dictated by conscience and public opinion.”

To another question, he said there was always another alternative towards power generation but that the scale and cost were the main considerations.

“The price of fuel keeps going up these days (so) the Government picked this (coal) because it is the cheapest to generate electricity but it comes with its own risks,” Masidi said.

“We can’t really say this is the best because the best always has something attached to it (but) we cannot depend on fuel for power generation forever.”

Sabah Environment Department Director, Yabi Yangkat, said a key point given by the DOE for rejecting the DEIA, prepared by a team of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) consultants, was that many important environmental parameters were not addressed in the report.

http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=74178

Popularity: 11% [?]

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: 7% [?]

July 30, 2010, Friday

KOTA KINABALU: Biomass, a green energy sector with an estimated value of RM30 billion in Sabah, has been earmarked as the next major industry to be developed in the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (Poic) in Lahad Datu.Poic Sabah Sdn Bhd’s chief executive officer Dr Pang Teck Wai said a Japanese company had already set up operations in the cluster to pursue biomass activities and the state government was continuously promoting the infrastructure there to attract investors.

Poic Sabah was set up by the state government to spearhead palm oil downstream processing and the company is placed under the supervision of the state Industrial Development Ministry.

“This is what we called the infant stage, so now the state government is trying to move towards opening this frontier for investment opportunities,” Pang told reporters after the opening of Malaysia’s largest palm oil technology expo Palmex 2010 here Wednesday.

“We have created the best infrastructure. So the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle we are trying to put together is access to raw materials, which over the next few months we will probably hear more of the state government’s initiatives,” he said.

All along, the palm oil industry has not been able to get biomass activities started because of the difficulty in accessing raw materials such as empty fruit bunches, oil palm fronds and oil palm trunks, Pang said.

“So the state government is now in the process of seeing how we can facilitate investors’ access to biomass raw materials.

“Not only access but also at a price low enough and competitive enough,” he said.

Sabah, which produces about one third or 5.4 million tonnes of the total country’s crude palm oil of 17.5 million tonnes annually, has a lot of raw materials readily available to be used for the biomass industry, according to Pang.

“In the palm oil industry, some said that the major part of the wealth in the oil palm tree is not in the oil but in the biomass,” he said.

“Sabah’s palm oil industry produces around 27 million tonnes of raw materials (that can be used for biomass), and six million tonnes are empty fruit bunches, about 19 million tonnes are fronds, and the remaining two million tonnes oil palm trunks,” he added.

Besides biomass, biogas is also another huge potential to be explored in Poic in future, said state Industrial Development Minister Datuk Raymond Tan.

Asked if the state government was coming up with incentives and schemes for investment in biomass, Tan said: “There will be programmes, this is a state initiative and we have explored the possibilities in a number of ways.”

Earlier, Tan said he was informed that oil palm mills were not excited about power generation because of the many competing uses of oil palm biomass and the not-very-attractive rates offered by Tenaga Nasional Bhd.

The issue of biomass supply security and pricing also needed to be ironed out, he said.

On another development, Tan said Poic Lahad Datu had attained an excellent level of success, having so far attracted 27 investors with total investment valued at RM2 billion. — Bernama

http://www.theborneopost.com:80/?p=53905

Popularity: 38% [?]

KOTA KINABALU :  The Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) said it will resort to legal action if the Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment ( DEIA) report on the proposed 300MW Sinakut coal-fired power plant is approved by the Department of Environment.

“If the Department of Environment approves the DEIA without consideration and though a process not acceptable to Sabahans, it leaves us with no choice. Sepa will take the issue to court,” said Sepa President Wong Tack.

“We have consulted our legal team and many concerned Sabahans have pledged financial support for it. We are firm that any irresponsible action by the project proponent and approval agencies will be met with the strongest action from the people of Lahad Datu and Sabah.

“We are not against anybody but only to protect crucial ecosystems like Darvel Bay which affects Sabah’s long-term interests and food security,” Wong Tack said.

“The social study in the DEIA also does not reflect the mood of the people in the immediate and larger area of Lahad Datu,” Wong Tack said.

“Ground activities over the last month recorded 500 people had turned up on the proposed project site in Sinakut, 100km from town and a further unexpected 1,500 people turned up at an anti-coal forum on July 24 in Lahad Datu,” he noted.

“We can see a groundswell of opposition against the coal-fired power plant because nobody in the East Coast or Sabah want the best source of seafood at their backyard to be turned into a garbage dump for independent power provider, Lahad Datu Energy.

“The mood on the round is very clear and we hope that the Government reads that message and takes it seriously,” Wong Tack said.

Nonetheless, he said Sepa welcomed Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman’s appointment of Datuk Masidi Manjun, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment to look into the matter.

“We are thankful to the Chief Minister for having looked at the people’s concern seriously and appointing the rightful State Ministry under Masidi to look at the matter,” Wong Tack said in a statement, Sunday.

“That alone has restored the State’s dignity for the people of Sabah and State agencies,”he added.

“We are also very grateful to Masidi for his press statement Friday that the decision and the responsibility is in the hands of the State Government and the State Cabinet.

“This is the right thing to do and we are quite confident, now, with Masidi’s leadership, a positive decision will be made with Sabah’s long-term interest at heart,” Wong Tack said.

On the basis of Sepa’s outright rejection of the DEIA, Wong Tack claimed that firstly, Sabah’s members of the Panel of Review of which Sepa was one, had rejected the Terms of Reference (TOR) at a meeting held in Putrajaya last November.

The objection was due to crucial parameters which were very pertinent to the proposed site such as the Sulu Sulawesi Marine Eco-region and the Coral Triangle Initiatives which had already identified Darvel-Semporna Bay as a Priority Conservation Area for years, were left out of the TOR.

“During that meeting it was advised that the consultants work with or consult State agencies, NGOs and the people of Sabah but none of that happened,” he claimed.

“Subsequent to that TOR meeting, the State Minister (Masidi) requested a second review of the Terms of Reference be held in Sabah but again nothing happened and yet the original Terms of Reference was approved and came back to us with hardly any amendment,” Wong Tack said.

“That means our opinions, our inputs and comments expressed during the TOR meeting were totally ignored.

“Because the original Terms of Reference was approved in a hasty manner and imposed on us, Sepa attended the July 27 DEIA review at Kedah Room, Federal Building, Kota Kinabalu, under protest, making it clear at outset that we rejected the DEIA on grounds that it didn’t follow due process required of a detailed EIA.

“So the stand that we now go public with is not new. Every member of the Panel of Review heard it, including the consultants and project proponents,” Wong Tack Said.

“And during the DEIA Review meeting State agencies questioned why clean and green technology options were totally left out in the study but the consultants’ reply was their scope was limited to coal,” he said.

“Because they seem insistent on looking at only a narrow limit and not any other options while Green Surf of which Sepa is a member knew there are feasible renewable alternatives from our study done by a US energy expert which report has been made public.

Hence we have good reasons for rejecting the Terms of Reference and the DEIA,” he said.

“Our fellow NGOs had exposed false and blatant non-factual information in the DEIA report. SEPA’s stand now is that the consultants involved should be dropped,” Wong Tack said.

“We hope Masidi will engage local consultants to do a detailed study but Sepa’s opinion is that over the last eight years, under the well publicised Sulu Sulawesi Marine Eco-region and Coral Triangle Initiative of which Malaysia is a signatory, there is enough scientific information there to decide that this coal-fired power project in Darvel Bay should be scrapped, right now,” he said.

“Both Malaysian and international marine scientists have spent years looking at this area and pushing for marine conservation under this Coral Triangle Initiative where 15 million people in the SSME and 35 million in the Coral Triangle depend on for their livelihood.

“There is enough information about the ecological importance of Darvel Bay and no further study is necessary.”

Daily Express 2nd Aug 2010 .

Popularity: 20% [?]

KOTA KINABALU: Mud flats at Dent peninsula, the area earmarked for a coal power plant, is home to corals and four different types of sea grass, making it a unique ecosystem.

Though it is muddy at the seabed level, waters at this area are clean, allowing for small reef patches to grow. As mud flats cover a large area, collectively reefs and sea grass in this ecosystem are important for fish populations and nesting.

Green Surf (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future) decided to raise this point for public knowledge after carrying out its own survey to verify the Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) report for the proposed 300 megawatt power plant at Kampung Sinakut, Lahad Datu.

In a statement, Green Surf said the DEIA did not compare corals within a mud flat to a similar ecosystem.

WWF-Malaysia Borneo Programme chief technical officer, Dr Rahimatsah Amat, said in reporting low coral diversity for the area, comparisons were made to coral reefs in places like Tioman instead of another mud flat.

“Comparisons are made with coral ecosystems, not to similar habitats, and therefore misleading,” he said.

WWF-Malaysia is a memeber of Green Surf, a coalition that includes Sabah Environment Protection Association (Sepa), Land Empowerment Animals People (Leap), Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) and Partners of Community Organisations (Pacos).

Rahimatsah said the report’s finding that there was 16 per cent of coral coverage is considered high as it is a soft sediment seabed area, not commonly known for having reefs.

Divers and professional photographers who checked sampling sites mentioned in the report, also discovered corals that they were unable to describe and those not commonly seen at other dive locations.

This could indicate that there are species that have yet to be discovered, making it an area of high priority for conservation, but this was not highlighted by DEIA report.

They also saw lobsters and a variety of fish at pristine waters, which fall under the Coral Triangle and Sulu Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion.

Green Surf also said at another site close to the proposed plant, mangroves run into coral reefs, a rare gift of nature that could create eco-tourism spin offs for its outstanding scenery.

Extract from Daily Express 27th July 2010.

Popularity: 6% [?]