It has been a most eventful day involving the three-island project in Penang and the plan to develop more than half the north Kuala Langat forest reserve. Aliran has just released this statement:
Today has been an inspiring day for People Power in Malaysia.
Two major successes in one day show we can never underestimate the power within ordinary people to bring about change.
Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, highlighted the concept of the Malaysian Family in his inaugural address to the nation.
This is a welcome development, especially after the unsavoury political jostling and power grabs over the last couple of years. “Let us open our hearts and minds to uncover similarities, without digging up differences,” he said. “We need to work together to save our family, that is, the Malaysian Family.”
Today, alarming news filtered out of Selangor: 1,326 acres or 54% of the 2,300-acre Kuala Langat north forest reserve will be ‘developed’ – or rather destroyed. It would be given to a private company for ‘mixed commercial development’.
These 8,000-year-old forests had been gazetted as ‘permanent forest reserves’ – a misnomer if there ever was one.
Bad news folks. I wrote the article (see bottom) about the organic farm known as the Wonder Wilderfarm at the Relau Agricultural Park on 12 January 2017. On Monday, 23 August, four days ago, a bulldozer flattened the farm – without any notice, from what I hear, and with hardly any time for the tenant to salvage whatever she could (though she has now been given three weeks to remove her stuff).
The rain that belted down this evening aptly summed up the sense of despondency in the living rooms of many homes here.