DAP welcomes invite for public comment

Kota Kinabalu: DAP Sabah Likas Assemblyman Junz Wong said he supports the SEIA (Special Environmental Impact Assessment) for Tanjung Aru Beach as a necessary process and is willing to go along as long as the results are not a foregone conclusion. Junz claimed there was high potential for conflict of interest to arise in the Tanjung Aru Beach Eco Development (TAED) based on his observation of the committees both named and unnamed in the draft Terms of Reference (TOR) for the TAED.

"It appears the same team of government officers will be sitting on the Government's Review Panel, DBKK, Central Board and so on," he said, Tuesday.

Wong, however, welcomed the invitation by the Director of Environmental Protection Department for the public to comment on the draft TOR that would be used to guide and also assess the SEIA of the TAED project. The Sabah Government needs to do everything according to its own laws and on top of that to strive and to achieve international best practices when given the opportunity, he said.

"If the Executive Director can talk of international standards in design and development we should expect international standards starting from the investigations and public consultation," he said. He did not believe the SEIA will result in an automatic ticket to development because a large proportion of Malaysians in Sabah have travelled overseas and many local and overseas graduates know exactly what they want to give to their next generations.

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"Some things just cannot be replaced," he said, adding that DAP Pakatan as the alternative government would not stand in the way of development provided investigations have been done properly and when they can prove there is overwhelming benefit to be gained from the development.

"But there has to be proper checks and balances at every step of the way starting from the conceptualisation of the project, investigations, planning, design (and only should it get to this point) then in the development of the site itself."

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