Corruption and illegal logging in Malaysia

Excuses by enforcement officers slammed
New Straits Times 25 Jan 09;

Illegal logging has become rampant and the MACC says more than one agency is involved in allowing this to happen.

PUTRAJAYA: It is no wonder that forests and protected areas in the country are often encroached on by illegal loggers.

The very authorities who should be nabbing the illegal loggers are protecting them.

The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission said it would crack down on not only on loggers but officers in agencies that have been in cahoots with them.

Commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan said the agencies in question include the Forestry Department, Malaysian Timber Board, Customs, police and the Department of Environment.

"You won't believe what is happening to the forests in the Klang Valley," Ahmad Said said in an interview with the New Sunday Times yester-day.
"It has become so rampant and it is not only one agency that is involved.

"You name it, they have a part to play, and these officers are only interested in making money."

He revealed that these illegal loggers had even gone to the extent of adjusting the delineation of forests reserves by hundreds of metres to cut down trees that are hundreds of years old.

Ahmad Said said it was unacceptable for enforcement agencies to claim that they were not in the know of illegal clearing of land as it was impossible for log-laden lorries to move about being unnoticed.

"We are talking about heavy machinery going into the jungle and coming out with huge logs jutting out from the lorries."

In Sabah last year, the MACC, then known as the Anti-Corruption Agency, intercepted a four-kilometre line of lorries carrying logs.

His officers were then told by the authorities that all were "clear", but upon conducting checks, it was discovered that the felled logs worth millions of ringgit were illegally sourced.

"We are getting all the evidence and will get them soon.

"People like these couldn't care less about the environment and are only interested in enriching themselves.

"They close one eye while jungles are flattened and have allowed this to happen for a long time."

He said the MACC had a good reason to focus on the environment as the corruption involved posed a severe threat to the country.

Ahmad Said said unless the MACC came in to arrest the problem, Malaysia would continue be seen as a nation that did not protect its environment.

"Some countries are already boycotting our timber products after they were found to be illegally sourced."