Digest on Malaysian News

The 50-km long log-jam that blocked Malaysia’s biggest river shows the scale of unchecked deforestation in the highlands of Borneo and raises fresh concerns about how the state of Sarawak manages its natural resources, . This is Malaysia’s mighty Rajang River as it has never been seen before, choked from side to side — for kilometre after kilometre — by thousands upon thousands of dead trees. Source: Malaysia’s million dollar question — where did the logs come from?

Environment and Public Health Minister Wong Soon Koh declared the log-jam to be a “natural calamity of gigantic proportion” and blamed landslides in highland logging areas. He said: “The wooden debris which was swept away could have been accumulated there for the past 40 or more years.” Pure bullshit from WSK.

Land Development Minister James Masing blamed unscrupulous timber companies and said that whoever caused the problem should be punished. Another hypocrite talking. JM is the assembly of Baleh (where the incident started) and he is the Land Development Minister. Things happen right under his nose and he make don't know.

One blogger called Tbsbidayuh summed up the mood when he wrote: “Thank you to the monsoon rain for revealing state government ignorance on taking care of environment.”

River transport at standstill as debris clog rivers: It has never occurred over the past 50 years that such a large amount of debris flowed down to completely cover the river, blocking any navigable passage.

CM: We will probe cause of logjam: “I have asked the people to investigate the cause as this is the first time we have such a thing. So we should not just jump to conclusions. When pressed on what he thought would be the cause of the massive clogging, Taib said he did not know as he was not a scientist. Taib, is also Minister of Planning and Resource Management.

Soil erosion, eh: BorneoPost, the government's mouth piece reported that many attribute the logjam at Rajang River to soil erosion at Baleh. BorneoPost is diverting the issue and failed to report on the root of the problem.

Debris in river push water treatment up 119 pct. Sibu Water Board (SWB) forked out an additional RM19,000 (119 per cent increase) on water treatment as a result of the debris and muddy water in the river. By now the log are at the sea, so who will make complaints.

Ecological disaster along Rajang in Sarawak: It is a major disaster - disrupting navigation, causing structural damages as well as adversely impacting aquatic life. Thousands and thousands of logs and associated debris have been floating down river and have reached the sea. The actual total damage caused will be hard to tell but it will be pretty high. The fate of the thousands of logs in the open sea is anyone's guess. A tree floating down the river may be caused by natural causes but thousands of neatly cut logs are not caused by nature.

What is Taib response to this environmental disaster? All timber businesses are control by the Chief minister. But the disaster in the mighty Rejang river hopefully open his eyes, that is if the Chief Minister still can process in his brain what his eyes are seeing. Power and corruption not only blind a man but make a person insensitive to reality. This some truth here.

Recommended reading:
* Siltation in Rajang River due to heavy deforestation
* Siltation killed fish at Batang Rajang
* Who's protecting Sarawak virgin jungles