Green groups take protest to the government, which cannot afford to alienate voters in key state
Carolyn Hong, Straits Times 19 Jun 10;
The pristine waters of the Tun Sakaran marine park. The coal plant will be built 70km away which, according to environmentalists, is too close. Five Sabah green groups have started a campaign calling for it to be scrapped. -- PHOTO: YEE I-LANN
A PROPOSED coal-fired electricity plant to be built near a pristine marine park in Sabah has riled local environmental groups, and is also threatening to become a political issue.
Five Sabah green groups have started a vocal campaign calling for it to be scrapped, attracting the attention of opposition politicians who joined the Green Surf protest.
The 300MW plant was first proposed several years ago but cancelled twice due to protests.
It now appears likely to go ahead. Listed in the 10th Malaysia Plan as one of several high-impact projects to be completed by 2015, the plant is to be built near Lahad Datu in eastern Sabah.
According to Mr Wong Tack, president of the non-governmental Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa), this is one of the most pristine marine sites in the state.
Sepa is one of the five NGOs involved in the Green Surf protest.
'It's a beautiful area which has been described as heaven, and it is just 70km from the Tun Sakaran marine park and not far from the famed Sipadan and Mabul islands,' he told The Straits Times.
But the Sabah Electricity company, SESB, maintains that the state's east coast is in dire need of a new plant. It is now drawing almost 40 per cent of its power from the west coast's plants along a 270km-long grid.
Such a long grid, said managing director Baharin Din, is unstable and has already resulted in power blackouts.
Defending the use of coal to generate electricity, he said that renewable sources like solar or biomass are too expensive or too small to be viable.
'Coal is the most economically viable fuel option for the east coast of Sabah,' he said.
Upping the ante, the Green Surf group took their case to Parliament this week, to lobby the ministers and MPs.
They met Minister in the PM's Department Nazri Aziz and the Speaker.
'A number of MPs from both sides are with us,' Mr Wong said.
This is one of the rare occasions that the green movement has received such a receptive hearing.
Environmentalist Gurmit Singh said it is vastly different from the antagonism that faced the green movement members when he started out in 1976.
The vice-president of his Environmental Protection Society, Mr K.K. Tan, was even held for two years under the Internal Security Act from 1987 for pushing an unpopular environmental cause.
'It has improved now although perhaps not to the extent of cooperation by the government,' he said.
Indeed, the green movement has benefited from the opening up of democratic space in Malaysia in the last five years, helped along by an active Internet community.
A growing awareness of the environment has led to more vocal campaigns like Green Surf's, and the setting up of numerous ad hoc groups pushing issues like climate change.
Current political realities in Malaysia also mean that groups like Green Surf cannot be ignored.
The battle over the coal plant has potential political repercussions for the government. Sabah is a key vote bank for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which had won 24 of the 25 parliamentary seats there in the 2008 general election even as it suffered severe losses in Peninsular Malaysia.
But since then, the state's politicians have been agitating for Sabah to receive a greater share of the resources which it contributes to the federal government.
As of now, construction of the coal plant is still slated to start by September, if the Environmental Impact Assessment is approved.
But Sabahans like Ms Yee I-Lann, an artist who has launched a postcard protest campaign, continue to fight the battle, in the hope that there will be a last-minute change.
She has offered several of her photographs to anyone to publish as postcards to be sent to the Prime Minister in protest. She said more than 10,000 cards have been printed.
'I'm just an ordinary Sabahan, and we want the government to hear the voices of the local people,' she said.
Divers Say 'No' To Coal-Fired Power Plant
Bernama 21 Jun 10;
KOTA KINABALU, June 21 (Bernama) -- Citizens concerned with plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Lahad Datu are now using creativity to speak out against the proposed project.
A group of local divers brought their message to the Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park here during the weekend, taking underwater photos with a T-shirt with the words "Stop Coal Power Plant" -- a clear message to halt the 300 megawatt project.
They also took short videos of their plea to scrap the plant at the shores of the globally significant Coral Triangle, signalling "no" with their fingers, local environmental group Green SURF said in a statement on Monday.
One of the divers, Shartner Liew, said that going underwater with a T-shirt was the group's way of telling the government that they want alternative options to be used in generating power for Sabah.
"As divers, we are worried about the impact that the coal plant will potentially have on marine life at Dent peninsula, and the rest of the east coast. We want to spread the word to the nation to stop the coal-fired power plant.
"That is why we decided to do this together, as a team of friends who happen to be divers. We were joined by friends from other parts of the country," he said.
Liew and his friends fear that reefs on the east coast, including those at dive sites like Sipadan, Lankayan and Mabul, would be negatively impacted if a power plant is built in Lahad Datu.
He said several tourists at the marine park had shown interest in what the team was doing, and this was its way of creating awareness.
Green SURF, a coalition of five non-governmental organisations opposing the proposed coal-fired plant planned for Lahad Datu, is seeing a rise in the number of individuals and groups coming forward to support the call for the government to use green technology to power Sabah instead.
-- BERNAMA
