Happening right on our doorsteps.The slaughter of this most unnecessary way of earning a livelihood. This is the way they live and the only way they know how to supplement their meagre income.This is where poverty plays destructive role on nature and the environment.This is were government failed.This is where we have Fisheries Department that is completely dysfunctional and headed by idiots who sat on their arses and do nothing to educate the fishing community on the proper way to fish to protect the marine ecosystem and maintain sustainable balance of the resources.
From fish bombing, cyanide poisoning to slaughter of sharks,whale sharks,turtles and many other endangered marine species, the authorities have done nothing to bring this most shameful act under control.They only jump out from their slumber when something like this came to light and, shamefully, it is always concerned citizens or even more shameful, visiting tourists, who exposed such undesirable act. The Fisheries Department, Marine Police and those given the responsibility to police the sea and look out for such illegal activities are big bloody disgrace.They are always the last to know, when the damage are already done.
The recent discovery of shark finning in Mabul on regular basis is going to cause grievous damage to the marine ecology in the surrounding waters of Sipadan Island. The photos are evidence of the active participation of villagers on Mabul, a fishing community of lazy fishermen, who resort to the laziest way of catching fish, either bomb,poison or do what you see in the photographs.
Click to enlarge
Some may think it is all right to kill sharks just for their fins and discard the rest of the body.Considering the meagre amount of money you get for the fins and the huge damage you caused to the marine ecosystem you have to be a moron to do such a thing and, unfortunately, these people from the southern Philippines are morons and one of the laziest people I have came across and they will always be poor because they killed the very resources that suppose to sustain their livelihood.
It is a sickening trade and the Sabah government should impose a ban on shark finning.It has successfully banned the collection and consumption of turtle eggs, the same can be done to this awfully cruel trade.
There is no nutritional value in shark fins.Stop the buying and the killing will stop too.
Sometimes, you wonder whether some of our Federal ministers know what they are doing and whether they know the boundary of their jurisdiction.Where they should poke their nose and where they shouldn't.
I am surprise that the Federal Minister of Tourism Azalina Othman jumped on the bandwagon without first checking her facts.What makes she think she has jurisdiction over land matters and development in Sabah.These are state matters and she should buzz off.Simply reading something in the newspaper and jumping to conclusion that something was very wrong with the development and making stupid statement in the media just to seek publicity goes to show that she has poor grasp of her functions and responsibilities.
“I am personally unhappy because I believe that the place is best left untouched" she said.How much does she know about Sabah let alone Mabul and Sipadan. Does she know there were at least four resorts built over waters in Mabul and no one made any noise before. As a politician can't she tell between a politically motivated action and those that really concern the environment.
Mabul reef was bombed to smithereens before those resorts came to Mabul.Every bit of coral was blown to pieces and in some area one can only see white patches of broken corals.
Clean your own backyard first before you start poking you nose into something that doesn't concern you.
Only the Prime Minister can talk or instruct the Chief Minister of Sabah by virtue of it being under the BN Government and the PM is the ultimate boss.Other Federal Ministers have no right to tell the CM what to do on state matters.They are below him in protocol when they come to Sabah.It goes without saying Sabahans being more cultured and more civilised in manners (except Bung Mukthar) always give due respect and show of hospitality not only to Federal ministers but to anyone who come to visit the state.Unfortunately, some are just too moronic to understand this simple social etiquette and mistook it as they are superior in rank.
If Sabah is under the opposition like Penang,Kelantan,Perak,Kedah and Selangor even the PM has no power or authority to interfere in state matters.In fact Sabah and Sarawak have bigger autonomy in state matters than other states in Malaysia.Those were conditions set by the two Bornean states when Malaysia was formed.
How bright can one be to have the audacity to propose the building of a sport complex in London at the expense of the Malaysian taxpayers on a mindless reasoning of training our athletes to challenge hypothermia to acclimatise them to polar climatic conditions.
So, Azalina know you stuff first before you start barking up the wrong tree.It is people like you that put Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in a badlight.
Sabah has its own Minister of Tourism.You are complementary.
In Sabah, we call this kind of action 'temberang'.
In Malaysia some people took pride in calling themselves environmentalists and object to anything and everything they perceived can cause grievous hurt to mother earth.Some joined environmental organisation because it has become fashionable to do so.Than there are those who are mad enough to risk their lives to pursue their ideals.
The extreme end of the spectrum are those highly glorified kamikaze environmental warriors of Green Peace.If you have nothing better to do and think mother earth is going to die soon because of human folly than you can join the Green Peace and chase Japanese whaling ships all over the world's oceans.These are the true warriors of mother earth.
If you are a lazy environmentalist like me than you can just sit on your arse and do nothing.If you are lazy,ignorant and with some degree of stupidity and need some publicity to promote yourself than go to your nearest news hungry reporter and spill your guts out on how some destructive force is out to kill our dear beloved mother earth without first checking your facts.
If you are really stupid and ignorant, just stay that way and you wouldn't become a prick and used by someone to make noise and object to any project under the guise of protecting the environment.
When come to the environment Sabahans are probably the most conscious among all Malaysians but they are also the most confused.
For the past two years the question still lingers whether Sabah should have a coal-fired power station or not.In spite of the fact that the state suffers frequent power breakdown due to acute shortage of power generation there were still strong objections from environmentalists and majority of the population when the government first announced the project to be sited near Lahad Datu.The location has now been moved to Sandakan and the people stood their ground and insisted not to have it.They would rather live in darkness than face the prospect of living in a polluted environment.
Gone were the days when coal were mined in Newcastle and we often see the ugly faces of coalminers in newspapers and magazines that scares the shit out of us how shitty coal was.Today's technology had made using coal more friendly to the environment.It may not be 100% pollution free but are much better than 50-60 years ago.It is also an alternative source of cheaper fuel for power generation if other sources are not available or too expensive.
A new voice of disapproval against another project has risen, more out of commercial consideration, rather than care of the environment.This time it is the proposed resort development on waters of Mabul Island.
The President of SEPA(Sabah Environment Protection Association) Wong Tack asked if the resort development was necessary because one could easily see fishes swimming in the clear Mabul waters.He went to say "How can approval be given to such a massive project before the terms of the EIA are known?”
Obviously, Mr Wong had been used by existing resort operators to voice their unhappiness under the pretext of caring for the environment.It has been proven that where there are proper environmental friendly resort built over waters the reef takes on a new dimension under natural regeneration because all resort operators won't allow any fishing or fish bombing anywhere near the resorts.
My Wong should visit Lankayan,Kapalai,Sipadan Water Village and see for himself that he was wrong.There are more marine live now than before those resorts were built. The coral have grown back attracting more marine creatures.If he can't afford to visit those islands than he can go to Gayana on Gaya Island which probably is the nearest to him if he lives in Kota Kinabalu.
If you have visited Mabul ten years ago you be utterly shocked to see that every bit of coral surrounding the island are dead and broken due to constant fish bombing.Fish bombing are still being carried out in outlaying reefs.The fishes swimming in the waters of Mabul that Mr Wong saw are the results of the many resorts on the island's waters. Kapalai which was completely built over a reef isolated from the main land is another example of a properly planned resort with no discharge of sewers into the sea.The sewers go to a treatment plant on the resort itself.The waste water are used to water plants in the resort.The reefs are teeming with all kind of marine creatures.
Well, the next time you feel you need to go and object to something and before you embarrass yourself go and do your homework first and make sure people don't use you to further their own business and political agenda.
The people of Mabul are quite happy to welcome more development on the island that can provide more jobs for them and their children.
Guess which politician stir up the villagers of Mabul with his crap story of the people losing their land to outsiders? Read the story here.
My first visit to Sipadan was in 1989 when the island was still undiscovered for its legendary underwater wonderland.There were no permanent structures on the island except a jetty and a hut owned by the turtle eggs collector.
I was there with a group of friend to fish and not being a diver then didn't know the existence of the vast marine wonderland beneath the surface that have now made the island famous and one of the top five dive sites in the world.A jewel in the crown that have made Sabah well known to the diving fraternity world wide.
Sipadan is the only oceanic island in Malaysia rising 700 meters from the ocean floor in the Celebes Sea and has earned its reputation as an underwater paradise.The endless scenes of patrolling hammerhead sharks,circling schools of barracuda,millions of technicoloured reef fishes, scores of turtles and diversity of coral reefs can be intoxicating to those who are privileged to be able to journey below the surface of the ocean. This island have also taken the lives of those who were foolish enough to go beyond the limit of their endurance.
The island used to have several resorts on the island itself and all divers stayed in the resorts and can do as many dives as they wish.There were fears that pollution and over-population would overwhelm the marine bio-diversity on the island and surrounding waters.
Back in 2002 the government in order to protect the island from pollution and over-populated human presence changed all that by evicting all resorts from the island and imposed a maximum quota of 120 divers per day.The island was placed under the control of Sabah Parks and BKN(Bahagian Keselamatan Negara-National Security) which has now been renamed MKM (Majlis Keselamatan Negara).A fee of RM40.00 per diver per day is charged by Sabah Parks.
Since the eviction of those resorts off the island there have been many complaints from resorts owners and divers on the management of the island by Sabah Parks and MKM.Many foreign divers who come regularly to dive in Sipadan have expressed shocking disappointment at the deteriorating conditions on the island and below the surface.There are traces of line fishing discovered by some divers and on some occasions divers could hear blasts of fish bombing going off in the vicinity of waters near the island.How far off the fish bombing is difficult to tell as sound travel much faster underwater than on land.
MKM, a division under the Prime Minister's Department is responsible for security of the island and its surrounding waters.They are only concerned about piracy and left those fish bombers to their own devices.Typical of most government servants irrespective of whether they are from state or federal department, when the cat is away, it's time to play.Just sit on their arses and do nothing if not told.
Many resort owners are also complaining at the way the quota are being distributed among the resort operators. For some unknown reason a particular resort seems to get a bigger slice of the allocation putting some of the other resort owners in a dilemma and the prospect of being black listed by their overseas travel agents for non-performance of contract.
Overseas divers paid a lot of money to come to Sipadan and most of them expect at least three dives a day. This has been the standard policy since the opening of the island in the late 80s.
After having paid huge sum and to have travelled thousand of miles to find out later that you could only dive once or twice would certainly make you feel cheated.Some divers have even threatened to start a campaign overseas to boycott the island.
Resort operators have spent millions to build their resorts and have a break even point where they needed certain amount of occupancy before they can start making money.They can only survive if they have a reputation of being reliable.To tell your guest that he could not dive that day because you don't have enough quota, because the government fucked up the system, is a sure recipe for disaster and the prospect of losing your future business is as surely as death.
One amusing if not embarrassing story told to me by a divemaster about a Japanese diver who was highly agitated because he could not have enough dives told the dive master that in Malaysia everything can(Malaysia Boleh), why he is not doing it.He is asking the divemaster to bribe the people who issue the pass to get more quota and he is prepared to pay for it.So much for our reputation of 'Malaysia Boleh'.
Another complaint is the idiocy of those blithering idiots at Sabah Parks and MKM to check diver's identification against the list provided by the resort operators and insisted they must be the same person.I was told it is foolhardy to try challenge and tell these little napoleons that what they should be concerned about are numbers not names.As most morons do they would make life even more difficult for you.
The idea of imposing quota is to limit the number of divers.By their stupid action they have deprived the operator of the flexibility of using the quota by replacing the diver with another one in the even the named diver fell sick or for some other reasons couldn't dive that day.I am sure this complaint must have reached the chiefs in Sabah Parks and MKM and they have done nothing to correct this act of stupidity and discretionary blunders.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, the civil service and men in uniforms are never lack of it.They pride themselves on appalling bureaucratic procedures,red tapes and unimaginable foolishness.
The resort operator submit application for quota to Sabah Parks who than submit to MKM for approval and than back to Sabah Parks and back to the operator.What the hell for Sabah Parks to put personnel on the island if they have no power to approve the quota.What are they there for? Makan gaji buta kah!
Sipadan is within state jurisdiction, why must MKM be involved and given authority to do so? Even more ridiculous the dive fees collected by Sabah Parks were given to MKM for funding the security of the island if what I was told is correct.What are the taxes collected by the Federal Government from Sabah for? Isn't it their responsibility to provide security by the money they have collected in the form of various taxes.
I do not wish to be rude but what are the Sabah politicians doing to have agreed to this most ridiculous of demand by the Federal government to collect this meagre sum of money which rightly should go to state coffers for improving facilities on the island
Land matters are constitutionally under state control and Sipadan is part of Sabah and the Federal government has no rights over its administration and collect monies other than providing security.
The Minister of Tourism should look into this matter before Sipadan becomes the pariah of the diving fraternity and a tourism loss to Sabah.
Lastly, I must add that Sabah Parks are run by one of the most incompetent bunch of morons.Just take a look at the islands in the Tengku Abdul Rahman Park and see how disorderly,dirty and unhygienic the conditions are on the islands.The restaurants run by their cooperative KOKTAS are bloody disgrace.The toilets are awfully dirty and in state of disrepair.They collected gate fee for boats and visitors and how this money is spent one wouldn't have a clue because very little improvement can be seen on any of the islands.They cordoned off the beach completely for swimmers without giving any consideration to other users.
Two weeks ago I went sailing with some friends and decided to stop at one of the islands.Much to our annoyance we found there is no where we can reach the shore to beach our sailboat.They have completely cordoned off the entire beach.We have to tie our sail boat at the outer side of the buoy and swam to shore.Upon reaching the shore one of the park rangers, a moron, came and told us we cannot tie our boat there and when asked why he said it is swimming area, when he knew fully well the boat is outside the swimming area.This idiot can't tell the difference between a sailboat and a motorised boat and asked us to move the boat and anchor farther out in deep water.When I asked him how are we to get ashore he said just try and stop any of the boats passing near us.
You see this is what I say, morons employ morons.A small sailboat has no manoeuvrability and is at the mercy of the wind and don't usually carry anchor.
Morons at the top,morons in the middle and morons at the bottom.That's exactly what Sabah Parks is, from ocean deep to moronic high.
