A Realistic and Responsible Approach to Environment and Sustainable Development

At the Rio+20 Earth Summit last year, Malaysia was praised for "applying new green-growth technologies in a variety of industries, from agriculture to tourism."
That praise came from none other than UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who would no doubt be even more effusive if he knew all the details. What of the Malaysian Green Technology Corporation, set up by the Government of Datuk Seri Najib Razak to provide research and development for renewable energy projects? Or the Green Technology Financing Scheme, which has a kitty of RM3.5 billion for soft loans for green enterprises? This project is the incubator for precisely the sort of "green growth technologies" Ban Ki-Moon was commending last year.
These initiatives aren't promises for the next term of Parliament, but promises already fulfilled. The Government has already launched and delivered projects that make a sustainable Malaysia a reality and protect our environment for generations to come. No wonder BN believes we can cut carbon emissions by forty per cent by the year 2020, as laid out in the 2011 Renewable Energy Act, while still achieving high income status.
Pakatan Rakyat pays little attention to green issues in its manifesto, instead obsessing about Lynas and RAPID, over which it has made promises it is already preparing to break. Its manifesto does vow to reform "all existing legislation relating to logging" which begs the question: Did whoever wrote that sentence look at what is going on in Pakatan's backyard, especially Kelantan, Kedah and Penang?
Kelantan is not just a disaster zone of illegal logging, which the PAS-led Government struggles to deny, but when the run off from rampant jungle clearing in the Lojing Highlands resulted in dirty water sources nearby, all Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat could say was: "What to do? The water is already contaminated."
After more than two-decades, his tired administration has adopted the language of defeat on environmental issues, while at the same time saying it needs more time to fulfil its promises.
The PAS administration in Kedah has been logging without conducting a proper Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) but then again, the EIA that is planned in Penang for Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's controversial mega-projects is to be carried out by the very firm contracted to build the highways and undersea tunnel.  It's like getting your mother-in-law to assess your wife.
No wonder leading political scientist Dr Chandra Muzaffar this year dismissed the Pakatan states for their "problems involving land deals, zoning irregularities, and problems connected to shady contracts".
Najib can make promises for the future because of what he has done so far. So when BN's manifesto mentions not just forest preservation, but re-forestation of areas that have already been cleared, voters can be confident it will happen.
Pakatan can only be judged on its state record and that ultimately leads to a damning judgement.