Nature Alert: Malaysia Will Not Protect Officials Involved in Illegal Logging Case

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Malaysia Will Not Protect Officials Involved in Illegal Logging Case

Malaysia Will Not Protect Officials Involved in Illegal Logging Case

Source: Tempo Interactive - May 6, 2008 Jakarta

The Malaysian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Syed Hamid Albar, has promisednot to protect Malaysian senior officials involved in an illegal loggingcase in Indonesia. "They have promised to not protect them," said Speaker of the House ofRepresentatives (DPR) Agung Laksono after receiving Hamid Albar at the DPRbuilding yesterday (5/5).

During the meeting, Agung asked Hamid Albar about the possibility ofMalaysian high officials' involvement in the illegal logging case. Agungsaid Hamid confirmed that the Malaysian government would not hamper theinvestigation into its officials. Hamid Albar did not mention any names butstated his government's position as being cooperative with Indonesia forthis case.

"They are being cooperative," said Agung.Earlier, Forestry Minister Malem Sambat Kaban said that an officialnotification has been sent to the Malaysian government. "We sent it through the Foreign Affairs Department," he told Tempo.

The notification was sent after the illegal logging case in Ketapang, WestKalimantan, was uncovered.vBased on the investigation conducted by the Indonesian Police and the Forestry department, most of the illegal logs were distributed to timber factories in Malaysia, including a factory managed by a Malaysian senior official. During a large operation on 14 March, a team from the Indonesian Police Headquarters confiscated 12,000 cubic meters of logs, valued at Rp208billion.TOMI DWI RIYANTO

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.