In addition to having 1MDB being named as the 3rd world corruption scandal of 2015 by Foreign Policy Magazine and appearing as one of the 5 countries named in TIME Magazine’s State of Global Corruption, Malaysia can add one more ‘achievement’ for 2015 – going from almost no production of bauxite in 2013 to producing 20 million tons in 2015 making the country the fourth largest bauxite producer in the world after Australia, China and Brazil!
The result of this uncontrolled exploitation of resources driven by greed is the serious pollution of rivers and other water bodies in and near Kuantan, the stripping of forests and earth at mining sites and the transformation of the roads and buildings in the area to various hues of red and orange. The total failure and inability of the state and federal government to control the bauxite mining activities led to the sea off the coast of Kuantan turning red earlier this year! The frustration of the people over this disaster was clearly evident when some residents set alight 5 lorries which were carrying bauxite through their areas.
There is now tremendous pressure on the state and federal governments to allow the bauxite mining operations to continue when the moratorium imposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment ends on the 15th of April, after a period of 3 months. Continue reading “The Federal and Pahang state governments must ensure that the existing pollution and environmental degradation is reversed and proper safeguards put in place before allowing even one kg of bauxite to be mined after the mining moratorium ends on the 15th of April, 2016”