Nature Alert: RI very important country to Malaysia: PM Najib

Wednesday 8 April 2009

RI very important country to Malaysia: PM Najib

Kuala Lumpur, April 8 (ANTARA) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Indonesia was a very important country to Malaysia and therefore the two neighboring nations of Malay stock should continue to maintain and increase their relations.

Malaysia's new prime minister made the remarks in a special interview with representatives of nine Indonesian media, namely ANTARA News Agency, Kompas, Media Indonesia, Republika, the Jakarta Post, Sinar Harapan, Gatra magazine, RCTI, and Malaysian news agency Bernama at his Putrjaya office on Tuesday.

"In a conversation with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, we agreed to have a direct contact through the phone if a problem is emerging. Besides building formal ties, we also need to develop personal relations among the countries' leaders," said the Malaysian prime minister who is of Buginese descent.

President Yudhoyono had called Najib to congratulate the latter on his rise to the Malaysian premiership. Najib succeeded Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"It is important to build good relations with Indonesia because it is diffult to separate them in strategic, cultural, religious and emotional terms," said Najib in his first media interview since taking over from Badawi last Friday.

He said that in order to step up bilateral relations between the two countries he would encourage a number of cooperative efforts in the economic field. He would boost mutual investment among businessmen between the two nations.

Najib said that investment in oil palm plantations in Indonesia by Malaysian businesses, for example, should be done in partnerships with Indonesian counterparts so that enterprises would not be controlled 100 percent by Malaysians.

He also saw the possibility of strategic investment in the energy sector. "We are studying the possibility of channeling power supplies from Bakun in Central Sarawak to the Malaysian peninsula or to be exported to Kalimantan." On the other hand, he said, there was also the possibility of Indonesia exporting electricity from Sumatra to the Malaysian peninsula.

"These are several potentials for cooperation between the two countries," he said. (Antara)

http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=9399

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.