AUGUST 20 — The world is going through a redefinition of what constitutes a modern and developed nation and Malaysia risks falling off the bandwagon as we omit a much-needed focus on the environment. A developed nation in this day and age means a nation that prioritises sustainable development. It means a nation that does not jeopardise the livelihood of the future generation and the ecosystem, in chasing numbers, or for the interests of corporate greed. It schemes wiser strategies to deal with the use of non-renewable energies like fossil fuel, and it definitely enacts better policies for the interests of the environment.
The government’s recent rhetoric of creating a new national car company, even if it was just a strategy to preempt and shake up Geely’s dominance in its alliance with Proton, remains to be seen as a regrettable decision. One of the offhand reasons given for this proposal is that the talents which we have in the car manufacturing industry will go to waste without a ‘national car’ company. Why are we only obsessing over the engineers that we have in the car industry, when our government’s involvement with it in the past has shown that the industry, at its peak, could only remain locally relevant? Why can’t we nurture talents in green economy sectors instead? Where is Malaysia heading when we decide to pour money into an industry producing machines that use fossil fuels to operate, when developed nations are living up to their promise of keeping their roads free from fossil burning cars by 2050?
France, Norway, Netherlands and many other countries have confidently issued projections to abolish petrol usage in the foreseeable decade or two. Electric cars, moreover, are sizing up progressively against fossil fuel cars in the West. The proliferating number of Tesla car sales in Europe, especially in Denmark, is good enough proof of this major shift in car manufacturing trends. Forget Europe, even China isn’t moving shyly in this direction. China is vigorously creating an ecosystem, on the roads and in the car industry, to prepare for the electric car future. Malaysia will only chase a ghost of the past, if we reinvigorate the same ‘national car’ dream we had two decades back. Our new leaders made no mention of the car electrification ecosystem to drive towards the fumeless future, and no mention of fortifying alternative and sustainable energy sources to prepare our roads for electric cars. Instead, the country’s premier only emphasised on the sentimental conviction of the ‘nationality’ of this third ‘national car’ company, over anything else; denoting a lamentable way of thinking, and lack of foresight at the top of our administration.
In fact, the absence of any struggle to debate pro-green policies during the 14th general election campaign period proved that our leaders are worryingly and critically sluggish when it comes to pro-green policymaking attitudes. It’s not like being pro-environment cannot generate profit for the country. Countries like Germany and Sweden, Scotland and even China have proved that shifting the national policy towards being environmentally friendly and investing in green economy can massively benefit the country and generate vast revenues in the longer run. In contrast, the direction in which we are headed to now shows that our understanding of a developed nation is trapped inside a time chamber, clocked somewhere around the early 2000s.
While we’re on the topic of environmental issues, our policy-makers need to understand the significance of establishing a green economy to usher in a sustainable future. The emphasis on green economy and a sustainable environment are still scarce on our national discourse. It is true that PH’s states, for example, are doing much more to reduce the use of plastics compared to PAS or BN states. Selangor’s green action plan consisting of the implementation of electric vehicles, energy-efficient buildings and solar roofing systems for housing projects also show that PH states have better potentiality in terms of going green.
But at the rate our country is going, with very little being done to ameliorate environmental issues, we would not be green enough in time, to be able to abide by our pledges in the UN. Studies have estimated that with the current trajectory of ocean pollution sourced mostly from single-use plastics, there will be more garbage and plastic waste in the ocean in 2050, than fishes. The UNEP states that currently, eight million tonnes of garbage are entering our seas yearly, with 300 million tonnes of them already lurking out there, driving marine life to extinction. And in the midst of this, where we rank as a nation is at the world’s top eight polluters of the ocean caused by our rampant use of plastics; all while having the 45th biggest population only, and all while being one of the world’s top consumers of fish ironically (we consume more fish than the Japanese, seriously)!
It is worrisome that we’re not able to see more leaders in the government or in our Dewan Rakyat aggressively championing support for pro-environmental policies, while prominent scientists are predicting an uninhabitable world in just a century, lest we radically, radically change our ways. Places like Bangladesh and Miami are expected to be submerged in just a few decades, making millions of people climate-change refugees, and we rather cajole ourselves into another country-wide debate about a ‘national car’ company. We have had a solid foundation set up by the previous government in planning major cuts in our national carbon emission. Many excellent researches are also being done by great scientists in our public universities in the effort to conserve the environment and save wildlife. We should definitely utilize our resources for these kinds of purposes instead.
Malaysians have to strive much further to even undo the damages we are inflicting on the environment. Heck we even have so much trouble even establishing a functional and country-wide recycling system since more than a decade now. We are very far from even being able to tip the scale and produce environmentally positive results, following the exemplary utopia of the carbon-negative country, Bhutan, or sustainable energy-laden country like Germany. The future generation will have a better chance if the nation realizes earlier that conserving the ecosystem directly impacts our probability as a species to survive on this planet. The first step down the road is to get our leaders riling the nation about green economy, effective waste management systems, fumeless cars, efficient public transportation, sustainable energy, conserving habitats and pro-environment policies. Against this backdrop, deciding to pour our resources into creating a national car company is definitely a grave step in the wrong direction.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
