Saturday, December 22, 2012

Logs Are More Important Than The Lives Of Rakyat Kedah

If writings can speak, we could definitely hear a huge roar in Kedah asking Kedah's Chief Minister, Dato’ Seri Azizan Razak to come up. All around newspapers, blogs and websites are calling him, asking him to wake up from his slumber and see what is really happening to his state. Everyone is shouting telling him that extreme logging which is happening in Kedah is getting chronic and it would be disastrous. Everyone is hoping that he would answer and hopefully solve everything. However, even when the dam's polluted, rivers became muddy, and forests destroyed, Azizan is still sound asleep. The warning from the Environment Department is being ignored, Azizan did not even say anything to the mainstream media, nor the opposition's media. People are saying that Azizan do not know anything, considering that Harakah did not publish anything about it. However, considering that Azizan did threaten to continue logging at catchment areas, it is not wrong for us to suspect that it's not that Azizan do not know about it, he is well aware of it. Especially when he proudly announced that he would increase the profit on logging from RM35 million to RM39 million right after PAS takes over Kedah. Not just Azizan, even Kedah exco, Amirudin on May still went around saying how 'smart' PAS is for making profit on logging. In one of his ceramah videos, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v= CEaWFkAIwLU), Amiruddin proudly announced Kedah's income in logging has risen up to RM48.5 million in 2010 and RM80 million in 2011! We believe that not even a single PAS Kedah leaders really care about this situation that they went down to the site to see what is really happening. That is why, we suspect that PAS Kedah leaders already know about this but they simply ignore this matter because they do not know any other way to generate the state's income. They are unable to bring in any investors and they could not increase the income for their subsidiaries. So, logging is their only answer. Not enough with logging in their own state, PAS Kedah also humiliated the country when they went on with a logging project in Papua New Guinea. The purchase of logging and farming shares worth RM31.21 million by Kedah Corporation Berhad (KCB) revealed irregularity in form of bribery to the Minister of the country. The 2011 Audit showed loss in terms of goodwill payment to vendor worth RM1.21 million, mobilization expense reimbursement (RM3 million), commission and legal fees for loan (RM1.6 million) and loans for five companies and related costs (RM7.68 million) from 2007 until March 2011. The project, however, is still yet to begin. The thing that surprises us is that all of these deals are done without the approval from the Directors Board. Either Kedah State Government was aware of it or not, that is still in question. This is because, Azizan nor anyone from the state government say anything about it. For PAS, if Kedah is covered with mud, that is fate. If rakyat got sick due to polluted water, it is a test from god. it is never their responsibility, because PAS Kedah need to generate income for the state, and the only way they can achieve that is to perform extreme logging, as long as they have power to do so.

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