Where is Masidi and Wildlife Dept?
Published on: Saturday, January 21, 2017
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THERE’S a very old English saying Money Talks And Elephant (Bull) Shit Walks.
It means “Talk will get you nowhere, while money will persuade people to do as you like”.
It very aptly explains what is happening regarding the proposed second bridge to transect the lower Kinabatangan Sanctuary in Sukau, probably the last of the mighty alluvial floodplains in Asia and home to Borneo’s iconic species such as the Bornean orangutan, Bornean elephant, proboscis monkey and many more.
In 1999 the Sabah State government declared the Lower Kinabatangan, a part of the mighty 573km Kinabatangan River, Malaysia’s second longest River as Sabah’s “Gift to the Earth”. This was followed by the gazettement of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary under Sabah’s Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, who the custodians are the Sabah Wildlife Department, forever protecting this immensely important wildlife habitat for posterity – or so we thought.
Fast tract to January 2017, heavy machinery and contractors have already “invaded” Sukau and have started clearing and initiating site preparation for what inevitably seems to be the beginning of construction of the dreaded second bridge across the Kinabatangan River and the beginning of the end to the iconic wildlife species that call the Kinabatangan Sanctuary their home.
According to acclaimed local and foreign biologists who have for years studied wildlife in Sabah, the presence of a second bridge across the Kinabatangan will further fragment wildlife habitat and will be a death blow to the elephants, orangutans and proboscis monkeys that would eventually lead to local extinction of these charismatic species. Other smaller species will follow suit in extinction.
As we all know Sabah has already a sad precedent on this, the Sumatran rhinoceros, gone forever in the wild in Sabah. Never to come back.
Now with this clear and present evidence of the disastrous outcome that will befall the wildlife in Kinabatangan, why does it seem that all relevant government authorities and powers are silent and unable to speak up on this.
The Sabah Wildlife Department has clearly been meekly or shall I say cowardly quiet about this whole issue from the very start! Shame on you Sabah Wildlife Department!
You are but the custodians and the protectors of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary and its wildlife as described in the Sabah Wildlife Enactment but yet you have never voiced out your disapproval to this “wildlife killer” proposed construction of a second bridge across the Kinabatangan River. To me the Department is a disgrace.
Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun, Minister of Tourism Culture and Environment, one of the very few public elected representatives whom I have trusted so far to always be frank and honest in speaking out for the rights of those who can’t speak out, in this case Sabah’s wildlife. His voice also seem to have gone quiet or maybe muffled.
Datuk Seri Musa Aman as Chief Minister has promised that by 2020, 30pc of Sabah’s forests would be considered totally protected areas. But what good is a totally protected forest reserve if there is no wildlife to inhabit it.
Besides given Sabah’s political history, how safe is that 30pc of totally protected forest area when it can be very easily degazetted to be logged again?
This kind of turn-around decision by the Sabah Government has a precedent set here already in the lower Kinabatangan where a totally protected sanctuary can still be legally encroached, fragmented by building a bridge in the middle of the Sanctuary just because a YB insists.
To all my fellow Sabahans I believe its time that we stop putting our faith in our elected officials as well as the government department that is responsible to protect and care for Sabah’s wildlife.
All of us Sabahans must stand up and demand that all wildlife in Sabah is protected forever.
If we don’t, then money will keep on talking and elephant (bull) shit will keep on walking ... to extinction.
Elephas Maximus
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