IT’S an unpopular decision by the Selangor government to degazette a huge tract of forest land for development, and the Mentri Besar has found himself having much to answer for.
With a general election looming, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, which helms the state government, is understandably concerned about the sentiments of urban voters.
Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari is in the unenviable position of having to deal with pressure from all sides over the proposal to degazette the Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve (KLNFR) for development.
It would have been much easier for the MB to make a similar decision in Pahang or Kelantan, where there are plenty of jungles.
But city folk love their forests, with the environment increasingly a passionate cause.
Non-governmental organisations and environmental activists have understandably displayed disdain for the move.
The temperature has risen as a palace-linked company has been mentioned, even though it has wound up, while a powerful Sarawak company has entered the picture.
The company has been awarded the right to turn 495ha of the initially proposed 931.17ha of the forest into a mixed commercial project.
But as with everything, there are always two sides to the story. Proponents of the deal have argued that a report prepared by Universiti Putra Malaysia has shown the replacement forest reserve – as per the degazetting of KLNFR – has a total size of 1,058ha, compared to the KLNFR at 991.5ha.
The replacement sites are Sabak Bernam (308ha), Hulu Selangor (207ha) and Hulu Langat (63ha).
The main source of the controversy is the purported displacement of the orang asli community.
They certainly deserve to be treated better as the four villages within the KLNFR have been seeking to gazette and receive titles for the land they’ve been living on for many years.
The villagers at Kampung Orang Asli Busut Baru were shortchanged when they were relocated from KL International Airport, where they were promised titles and 404ha of land. Other villages have waited even longer.
For 27 years, they never received their land title or full promise. Where were their champions?
Finally, early this year, the MB and exco approved titles for four orang asli villages within the vicinity of KLNFR.
Kampung Orang Asli Busut Baru, for example, was approved 364ha at their existing site as well as another 41ha at KLNFR.
Strangely, the stakeholders at Bukit Cheeding, Pulau Kempas and Bandar Saujana Putra have no objections to the degazetting, but there is protest from Kampung Busut Baru.
Ironically, the state has fulfilled its promise to this village, but they must have valid reasons for their objections, and it must be respected.
Many of us who meant well in discussing this topic, have probably neither heard of these locations nor set foot there to talk to the communities.
Some of us even think that the orang asli in Selangor still depend on the forests for food.
On the contrary, they are part of our modern community. In fact, at Bukit Lanjan, not far from 1 Utama shopping mall, is a big orang asli settlement, composed mainly of the Temuan tribe.
I know because I regularly help a church group to deliver food to some orang asli children from Pahang.
I am sure Malaysians who oppose the degazetting mean well because our forests are disappearing and we want to protect the need for soil and water conservation, biodiversity and other environmental reasons.
After all, KLNFR comprises 8,000-year-old peat swamps that used to spread over 7,200 ha of land back in 1927.
The wisdom is to strike a balance between environment, economic development of the state and the availability of land.
Land is a state matter, and the authority lies with the state government, as clearly stipulated in the National Forestry Act 1985.
The proponents and opponents of the KLNFR have arguments to justify their cases, often leaving out many details which Malaysians, especially Selangor subjects, ought to know and understand.
For a start, 40% of the KLNFR forest has already been degraded due to encroachment and fires. So, it’s not quite green virgin land with clean rivers filled with fishes and prawns, as many of us might imagine.
In fact, an estimated RM2.2mil has been spent on fire fighting.
Succinctly put, in a hectare of land, only five or six big trees or two or three species can be found, as opposed to hundreds of species in a normal healthy forest, according to the UPM report.
The debate, of course, is that we can replant and rehabilitate the degraded forest.
But not many are aware that the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) was supposed to cut through a small portion of the forest, some 2% of it, but luckily, the plan has changed under the Perikatan Nasional government, and the train is now set to go through the northern parts of Selangor, passing by Gombak instead.
Selangor state generated a total of RM2.2bil in revenue last year. Land premium contributes approximately RM1.074bil, which is around 55%, while land taxes represent 25% of the revenue, which is around RM542mil.
Amirudin has received a hefty legal bill of over RM255mil, which the Selangor state government must now bear because the state has lost three suits from land acquisitions.
The total compensation that Selangor had to fork out for unlawful land acquisitions actually totalled RM1.3bil – and the RM220mil is merely the amount that the Selangor government has to pay now. The MB, unfortunately, has inherited a legacy problem left behind by his predecessor Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.
The MB should also explain if it’s true that Selangor, while being the richest state in the peninsula, is actually struggling with finances because it has spent RM1.1bil on Covid-related initiatives.
The bad economy, plus the fact that while Selangor contributes about 23% to the national gross domestic product (GDP), the state only gets back less than 10% from the federal government.
Here’s a lesson to politicians – winning the polls is easy but running the state and juggling the budget is tough.
According to the Department of Statistics, Selangor has 6.55 million people with an average of 1.5% annual increase, but by 2030, another 1.05 million people will be residents. I’m not sure if the illegals are factored into the estimates.
The National Physical Plan 2 states that Selangor is right in the middle of a Mega City comprising Selangor, KL, Putrajaya and Seremban.
State government coffers are drying up. Penang is doing a deal with a developer to reclaim land, and last week, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state would be selling land and transferring some of its dormant land to its development arm, the Penang Development Corporation (PDC).
He said the state collected revenue amounting to RM386mil as of June 2021, which was 76% of the estimated revenue of RM506mil, revealing it could not be collected in full in 2021.
Penang state is facing a barrage of brickbats from Penangites and its NGOs for allegedly killing fishing grounds.
For Selangor, the challenge would be to source a revenue stream as finances dry up, look to develop land with a growing population, and keep the people of Selangor safe and factories open.
Selangor has pressures which other state MBs and Chief Ministers don’t face because job opportunities have attracted millions of people to the state.
Also, the state needs to please the voters who want to protect the forests as a heritage and for the environment. After all, once the trees are gone, they can’t be replaced.
Those agreeing or opposing the de-gazettement have taken a strong stand instead of treading the middle ground – a classic case of failing to see the forest for the trees.
So, what do politicians do when a controversy can’t be resolved? Postpone a decision and review it.
