GEORGE TOWN, Feb 27 — Environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) wants the government to call off the proposed creation of three artificial islands touted to turn Penang into Malaysia’s “Marina Bay” — the popular resort in Singapore.
SAM president SM Mohamed Idris rubbished the points by Gamuda Bhd yesterday that the three man-made islands off the coast of Penang island will bring about economic development and benefit the people, saying only the developer stands to benefit from the ambitious project.
“This is all rubbish talk, all these developments only benefit the developers and construction companies, not the common people,” he said in a press conference here today.
He said there is no need for Penang to rival Singapore and create its own “Marina Bay” here through the Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project.
“What’s to be proud of building a theme park here? What we should focus on is ensuring people’s needs such as food and education are met while leaving nature alone,” he said.
He said nature is so fragile and yet Penang is bent on destroying its natural resources with grand projects that do not benefit the people.
He reminded political leaders that the fact that they were elected does not give them free license to do whatever they want.
“They are clearing our forests, reclaiming our seas, our natural environment is wastefully exploited,” he said.
He likened the widespread reclamation and forest clearing works nationwide to “committing suicide”.
“We must remember that we need our nature and environment for our future generation, without all these, we are only destroying their future,” he said.
Mohamed Idris launched SAM’s new publication titled Impacts of Coastal Reclamation in Malaysia at the Queens Bay Sea Shore Park that overlooked yet another ongoing reclamation and development project.
He said SAM’s study finds that coastal development and reclamation projects have robbed fishermen and communities of use and access to coastal and marine resources.
“Thousands of hectares of fishing grounds and marine habitat have disappeared due to the craze for reclamation,” he said.
He said there are similar reclamation projects in Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Johor, Pahang and Kelantan.
He said the mining of marine sand and aggregates used for reclamation and development projects are also increasing and causing significant impacts to seabed flora and fauna.
“We will be submitting this publication to the National Physical Planning Council to urge the council to cancel all proposed reclamation projects in the country, especially the PSR project,” he said.
He stressed that the PSR is not needed at all especially when it was to fund the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) which he said was another unjustified project.
He accused the state government of trying to bulldoze its way through to get approvals for the PSR and PTMP.
He accused the state government of rushing through the Penang Structure Plan 2030 (PSP2030) which was needed for the approval of the PSR.
“A hearing on public feedback on PSP2030 has yet to be carried out and we fear that this exercise would be merely a sham and objections are not seriously considered for revision of the draft PSP,” he said.
He also questioned the funding for PSR especially when the finance minister has said that the federal government’s debt and liabilities still hover around RM1 trillion.
“It would be imprudent for the federal government to channel funds for an unjustified project,” he said.
He said getting soft loans will also put the state further in debt.
He hoped the Penang state government will review and realise that the PSR project will negatively impact a wide sector of the population and the environment.
He urged the government to cancel the proposed PSR and other reclamation projects planned around the country.
