Sandakan People Silently Protest but Powers Bent on Destroying Life
By AN
As a commoner, though principled one, I have been following the issue of a proposal to set up a COAL-FIRE power plant on the east coast of SABAH closely for over a year now. In the name of ‘public interest’, several private companies, connected individuals and government officials, have been rumoured to have set the wheels turning on a grand plan to build a coal-fire power plant in Silam, Lahad Datu in Sabah.
After much controversy and conflict, the plan was scrapped – with reasons given for the scrapping as dubious as the reasons that were at first put forward for the project to go ahead. Now the same group of protagonists have shifted their ‘dormant’ plans to the nearby town of Sandakan.
It is in this brief moment of hopelessness, that I am finally spurred on to write my thoughts and feelings down. It is a sad day when greed and self-interest blinds one to the collective outcry of people, when logic and wisdom are thrown aside to make way for a callous disregard for your neighbour and the future of everyone and everything living (as dramatic as this may sound).
When once an absurd and globally-recognized-as-harmful plant was deemed inappropriate for a town such as Silam (with a population much smaller and very much less developed than Sandakan’s) it is suddenly viable and feasible to set it up in Sabah’s 2nd largest town. And at a location just across from a Malay village, less than 4km from a huge township, and at the doorstep of our famous SEPILOK forest reserve, internationally renowned as a haven for our precious orang utan, sun bears and hornbills to count but a few of Borneo’s endemic and endangered species.
I need not go technical about coal-fire power plants – because the average man on the street is already partially knowledgeable – they are cheap to run, proven pollutive (emitting harmful gases and solid pollutants regardless of how much filtration and control are applied), generate huge amounts of heat hence needing vast amounts of water to cool (nearby water sources are used and will raise water temperatures which inadvertently raise water temperatures and affect marine life) and are hard to control and optimize, in terms of efficiency, once commissioned.
Industrialized countries are trying to reduce their reliance on them because of the documented, detrimental side effects; NGOs and numerous communities across the globe wage a war against them (Are they fools to be wasting their time on something which is ‘harmless’?), the stories of huge coal-ash disasters in the US where control standards are already so high, and not forgetting our ever-looming, ever-increasing global warming crisis.
So one asks – what if it was a ‘safer’, ‘cleaner’ system? There is evidence that the system will come from China and the coal from Indonesia. Annually in China tens of thousands of coal miners die as a result of a matter-of-fact occupational hazard (so that’s why its NOT ok to subject our own nationals to such risky work environments but is fine to support an industry which does not risks but actually sends thousands to their graves, not to mention the prolonged health damage to the industry workers and their families). There is information from both countries to support the fact that people in close proximity of such plants suffer lung/breathing problems, cancers and birth defects, and that’s only scraping the surface (no pun intended with regards soot deposits)!
So they claim the set-up of such a plant and its supporting industries will bring growth and development to people. Fine way of putting it when as clearly as I can visualize it, it’s condemning everyone to a prolonged and ugly death (future? If you want to call it differently).
- How does a coal-fire plant (think a few kilometers proximity of everything) affect the global impression of a place supposedly one of Msia’s ECO-destinations?
- Where people here rely on aquaculture and the sea for their livelihoods; from Chinese boatman to the simple village fishermen.
- Where agriculture is an important mainstay and the risk of acid rain will contaminate the very soil we need to grow our food.
- How does a real estate industry work out in a town that few people will want to live in for fear of suffering cancerous ailments down the road?
- And funnily, plans are also afoot to set up a huge education corridor less than 10km away, made up of colleges, universities, polytechnics and so on – with courses such as ecology, environmental management and forestry research, blahblahblah. How do we subject a whole generation of bright young minds now, and more in future, to an environment which is a silent hazard, without so much as a bat of the eyelid?
- How do any industries which the local population will rely on, be sustainable, when people will be sickly and have to spend more money on just keeping themselves alive!?? We don’t have a proper welfare/health system – and the government can wash their hands (pockets) clean of any liability in the long run, when people in numbers fall ill and die I suppose.
I can’t go on much longer because there is no humanly and morally logical explanation to justify the risks as every argument just stacks up against it.
I wish to end by sharing this thought of mine which came to me of late – in this ‘prosperous’ and ‘intelligent’ country of ours, we are still faced with a Catch-22.
The poor man in the rural villager cries for handouts when all he faces is daily hardship amidst rising development all around him. He feels small and insignificant because his voice is feeble and the promises of a better future from higher authorities never seem to come his way. He isn’t bullied, he’s just not even noticeable.
The man who has spent his years of hardwork and God-given intelligence to rise up the ranks in the business environment, feels a tangible sense of achievement. Yet come a situation whereby he is asked to take a stand for self and loved-ones, in a societal context; there is an inherent fear of repercussions and backlash from the powers-that-be or simply those that oppose his views – resulting in a loss of all that he has worked so dearly for. He too feels and is somewhat irrelevant in the wider context
We face this predicament in Malaysia today – we are not free – our lives are shackled by an invisible oppression which has a grip on us whether we are poor or rich, ill or healthy, Malay or otherwise, educated or illiterate. With regards to the issue above – I feel this dilemma highlights the core of our values and Malaysian-makeup today. In the search for ‘wealth’ and ‘development’, we are become things without soul and conscience. We have lost the plot in so many ways. And irrespective of who you are, important or insignificant – there doesn’t seem much you can or want do to help your fellow man. I beg to be proven wrong.
Our Chief Minister (after a lengthy silence on this very issue) reinforced this ‘status quo’ –
‘He urged the people in Sabah's east coast to accept the reality that a new power plant was necessary for the area, as it would not only benefit the industries but could also improve their economy with the creation of more jobs and business opportunities.’ Bernama – 15 FEB 09
There is already a groundswell of local opposition against any coal-fired plant, though muted, but am I reading too deep, too much in between the lines or is it as inevitable as it appears and as pertinently directed at us?
http://www.petitiononline.com/acpac08/petition.html
AN
