Insidious Coal Power Plant Off - Great Day For Sabah

Hantu Laut

After so many years of tug of war between environmentalists and the people in Tenaga who couldn't care less about the welfare and health of the people of Sabah giving us a raw deal, we persevere in fighting for our rights for a clean environment.

Today, Sabahans stand proud that they have won the battle.

Chief Minister Musa Aman has declared that the coal powered plant is off.The chapter on the insidious proposal is closed and buried forever.

Many thanks to Chief Minister Musa Aman and the state government.

The full story here.

Open letter to PM from Sabahan Cynthia Ong

Open letter to PM — Cynthia Ong Gaik Suan

AUG 15 — 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 lead 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.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or the publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified

Related article:Stop Investing In Coal,You Idiots!

Stop Investing In Coal, You Idiots !

Hantu Laut

"Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet." – James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist

We are getting stronger tail end of the typhoons when they lay their destructive paths across the Philippines bringing bigger and more intense waves hitting our shores, eroding shorelines, damaging seashore settlements and bringing with it heavier rainfall causing floods and landslips.

Many shorelines on Sabah's western seaboard have changed in form due to heavier waves and stronger sea current pounding the shores.Coral reefs are dying, habit and habitat of marine creatures are a changing due to rising sea temperature.

Where there used to be land are now part of the sea.

The most noticeable adverse reaction of global warming and man's foolhardy actions of fouling up divine creations is the disappearance of most of my family land at Meruntum Bay, just about 12 km from Kota Kinabalu city.

Almost 50 percent of what used to be our land with beautiful stretch of beach and casuarina trees lining the beach have now disappeared under water impacted by global warming and indiscriminate land reclamation of Kota Kinabalu sea front over the years, done with EIA approval.

I suspect the huge reclamation at Sutera Harbour might have altered the sea current causing erosion that seriously damaged proximate shorelines over the years.

Sabah, is no more "Land Below The Wind" as described by Agnes Keith in her book of the same name.The weather pattern has completely changed.When it is supposed to be dry it's wet, when it's supposed to be wet it's dry.

We are getting more freakish weather bringing stronger winds whipping up huge waves pounding our shores, heavier rainfalls causing landslips and flash floods and hotter days during the dry months bringing drought and widespread bush fires are happening more often than not.

The past two weeks Kota Kinabalu and surrounding areas have been pounded daily by heavy rainfalls causing flash flood and landslips.

Climate change, I guess have impacted the changes.Even more disturbing strange things are happening below the sea surface, destroying beautiful coral reefs and changing the habits and habitats of marine creatures.

Just two weeks ago widespread coral bleaching occurred in marine parks throughout Malaysia.Pulau Redang,Pulau Tioman and Pulau Tayar in Peninsula Malaysia was temporarily off-limit to divers and snorkelers.Widespread bleaching was also notice at Sepanggar Bay at Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

Being a blue water angler for the past 30 years I can't help but noticed changing sea conditions in the areas I am familiar with.We are getting more unpredictable storms coming out of nowhere anytime of the day or night, whipping up waves from zero to almost 3 meters in a matter of hours.I have been caught out by such freakish weather on number of occasions, one with almost tragic consequence.

My fishing trips with friends would take us one to two nights to about 30 to 50 miles offshore. Reason being, both pelagic and sedentary fish are more active at night which give us better and bigger catch.The past three to four years something unusual is happening below the sea surface.There is a complete reversal of the fish eating pattern changing them to be more active during the day and more difficult to find at night.Could global warming be the cause of this strange phenomenon?

Even more disturbing is the dwindling catch and disappearance of certain specie of fish due to over fishing. The waters of Sabah's coast are over fished by fish bombing, fish poisoning, indiscriminate trawling and to lesser extent subsistence fishing and the increasingly popular recreational fishing.

Men are having mortal combat with the environment, killing it slowly but surely, ignoring that we are on an island in the universe surrounded by ocean of emptiness and neighbours without life-supporting environment should we one day need to leave this planet, we really have no where to go.

Sciences have not yet found a formula to take us to the far edges of the universe where life-supporting planets might exist. So, we should make the best and take care of the environment to save this planet from destruction.

Having said all that we again are going to face another environmental disaster that would add to the already highly-strained environment we live in if the Federal government continue to ignore the wishes of Sabahans of not wanting the proposed coal-fired power plant that would smear not only the environment but also the people's health.Worst still, the plant is in close proximity to one of the biggest and most delicate coral reef formation in the region in a highly fragile eco-system.

The Federal government has the option of diverting offshore gas for power generation that is kind to the environment but instead placed more importance to channeling the gas to Bintulu for export instead of giving Sabahans what rightly belong to them to use for clean power generation that is friendly to the people's health and clean to the environment.

For many years and until now the gas have been flared, in layman's term, burned.The moment Sabahans wanted it for power generation it raises eyebrows in the Federal capital suddenly making it commercially viable to pipe the gas all the way to Bintulu but not viable to pipe to KotaKinabalu for power generation to supply electricity to the whole state.

If West Malaysians have accepted coal powered stations in their midst without any questions it doesn't mean Sabahans are made from the same mould and should accept such wilful act of the government trying to shove down our throat something we found repulsive and dangerous to our health.We certainly still love,cherish and care about our environment and the clean air that we breath.

We don't want to be like Kuala Lumpur with perpetual blanket of smog hanging over the city and yet the city dweller are happy to drive their cars into the city contributing more pollutants to the already unhealthy air environment. This city has one of the most screwed up public transport system of a modern city in the world, a mass transit, if you can call it one, that do not connect.Three different systems that do not meet on a common interchange.To change system one has to cross roads,streets ,longkang and what not. The city dwellers have been shafted by nothing less than their own government.Inilah "Malaysia Boleh"

Adding chaos to the already dysfunctional system are the worst taxi drivers of the world who cheat passengers at their whims and fancies and the government seems helpless to do anything. Are they really helpless, or they are just apathetic? Who is the minister in charge, should not he be ashamed that for donkey years they have not been able to discipline the crooked taxi drivers?

The diversion above is to show that these are people who pretended to be clever and have proven to be not.They have screwed up aplenty.

These are the same people who admitted being misled by one minister making the whole cabinet looking like a bunch of fools and now allow the pseudo-technocrats in Tenaga to shove crap down Sabahan throats that there is clean coal. Like everything else, there is only clean coal if there is discipline.Knowing Malaysian maintenance culture, who can't even keep their public toilets clean, can you expect them to keep coal clean? Just visit any of our major airports and see how clean and nice smelling the toilets are.The ministers don't know because they all go through VIP rooms.Even if they do know, they probably do not care, after all they are not the one using it.

The story would have been different if there have not been safer and cleaner alternative.We have and we are being deprived of it for reason of greed and couldn't care less attitude of the government.

You can call us stupid, uncultured, anti-development and anti-progress but that's the way we are.

All we asked for is to give us back what rightfully is ours in the first place.

Stop Investing in Coal.

A coal power plant is demolished in Weishan County, China. China plans to invest 265 billion dollars in renewable energy by 2020 to wean itself off polluting coal.

Investments in conventional coal-fired power plants without carbon capture and storage (CCS) have to stop immediately in order to limit global warming below 2°C. Key investment areas for power and heat production should be renewable energies, storage systems, and grid development.(Photo: Reuters)

The EIA that approved the Sutera Harbour reclamation works was responsible for destroying part of my valuable family land which require million of ringgit to restore to its former self had now made me sceptical of any EIA report issued by the government.

I don't believe there is absolutely clean coal technology, it may reduce some CO2 emission into the atmosphere but it can create other problems. The sludge and effluence of dewatering low grade coal has to go somewhere? Where?

Holding ponds? For how long? Read the disaster in the US here.

A home in eastern Tennessee is partially buried in contaminated waste from a coal-fired power plant. View a slideshow of the damage caused by the billion-gallon spill on Dec. 22, 2008. Courtesy: United Mountain Defense

Where else! eventually the sea the victim.