Which Party Will Do More to Preserve Malaysia’s Environment?

Good stewardship of the environment has been a focus of the Government since Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's time as Prime Minister. Is Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional better prepared to lead in preserving Malaysia's environment?
BN offers a unified plan to steward the environment. Pakatan's plans are, well, murkier.
Barisan Nasional has a unifying philosophy: that a cleaner environment can and must be achieved everywhere. Thus, laws for reforestation and to prevent deforestation match with promises to reduce automobile and manufacturing emissions.
Creating space for 'green lungs' in urban areas is paired with a focus on green energy, promoting its use and creation in the public and private sectors. That, in turn, leads to producing the first domestically-made electric car and creating larger, more extensive and efficient mass transit and waste management systems.
It further extends to clean water, which is not only a factor in public health. Clean water supply means that human and industrial wastes are removed before entering the ordinary water supply. Contaminants are filtered and processed in a single location, rather than seeping into the environment over time.
BN promises the provision of clean water and cleaning existing waterways. It promises to solve the treated water supply problem in Selangor, Labuan and Kelantan and to extend the supply of clean water to 320,000 additional homes across Malaysia – a guarantee of better health and a better environment.
Water issues bring us naturally to Pakatan, who cannot boast the same record as BN. Kelantan's water problem is now decades old, and will only improve with BN intervention. Selangor's water problem is the result of a PKR-led state government prepared to spite their own citizens and their environment.
This fit-of-pique approach pervades in the manifesto, which begins its brief declaration on the environment with a plan to close the internationally-cleared Lynas rare earths plant. (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has since suggested that Lynas will stay open, raising questions about who wrote that part of Pakatan's manifesto.)
Pakatan then promises to "review the implementation phases" of RAPID to "ensure the well-being of the people and to protect the environment." There is no explanation why Pakatan cannot do this now. Nor is there specificity in its promises to "reform all existing legislation related to logging", or in its promise to reform mass transit.
That Pakatan has eschewed mass transit solutions – most recently, in Penang's decision to encourage vehicle traffic on the island through the undersea tunnel – makes this promise somewhat hard to believe.
One might also note that Pakatan is offering cheap cars and cheap petrol. Why take a bus when you can drive your cheap car with cheap petrol?
Pakatan also dedicates a short section to blocking the construction of dams, a clean and natural way to create electricity, presumably in favour of fossil fuel power generation.
Barisan offers a clear, unified vision of a harmonious environment. Pakatan offers a series of contradictions and promises to think about acting.
BN is prepared to protect the environment. Pakatan is not.