The future is in the hands of the present and those who are on position to make the difference are resposible to those who will inherit the country.Get the Sungai Pinang River clean up project on the roll without anymore excuses! In his interview with the public which was published in the Star news paper Mr. Lim touched on this issue answering one question that was of an environmental nature by one of the questioners. The sungai Pinan River is a serious 'Toxic Waste issue" for the State, the newly ellected CM noted and that was just about it except for the fact that one of his collegues was dumb enough to take a dip in it and was attacked physically by unknown microbes infesting the river.
I grew up on the river since the day i was born right smack in the middle of the Kampung Selut as the area was known in the past and most of my childhood life was spent waiting for the hight tide to arrive so that the water world fantasies of our childhood would come to life. This was in the early 50s and sixties before the area was developed. The hightide brought Morgan the Pirate, The Bucaneers, and hosts pof other sea faring characters to our childhood imagination as we swam our way towards the river mouth. The was all kinds of wildlife common to the mangrove environment, the Udang ketak, Ikan Tembakul, ikan Belachak, ketam selut, ketam batu, belangkas, siput lokan, siput balitong, biawak to name a few, which today has become extinct in this area. There were numerous species of birds to wake up to and fishes to trap in the mudholes, as a child growing up in this rustic life at the edge of Georgetown was a blessing for me and on looking back my heart is sick at what i see have become of my river.
The Sungai Pinang is only about six miles in length from the foothills of the Penang Hill range in Ayer Itam area somewhere to the sea and the whole six mles today is contaminated in one way or another. It has played vital roles in the past for those living on this Island not only as a source of water but that of a symbol for the State uniting the inhabitants who are racially pluralistic. To the newcomer this may not seem much to think about as the only sense they would have of the river is the stench that it gives off or the black brackish water that flows lifelessly int and out to the sea often laden with debris and floatsam opf garbage from the denizens of the island. To penangites, those born and raised on this island it is short of a bloody insult to our intelligence if not to our souls. We have allowed the river to deteriorate to such a state that despite all our modern technologies and advanced education the river is practically called a 'dead River'.
To cut to the chase on the matter as e know most politicians are always short of time especially on environmental issues, I am making a suggestion the present take into consideration of using the 'healing of the River' as a crusade that will unite the people into working towards a common goal. Let this be the clarion call for the various groups to come together and give all they got for the well being of one river that has been a common good to all of us regardless of who we are and this will be our legacy to our children. The present administration may have zillions of problems to work on concerned with zillions of issues left behind by the former administration and if not given serious thought over how this should be handled this admin too will be bogged down by the same issues till next ellection day. Tod do the unthinkable would be one option that the State can get a handle on all the issues and that is to not address them but allow them to continue on as they are while focussing all its attention on one unrelated issue which affects just about every walks of life, albeit politicians, doctors, rich man poor man Chinese or Indians , Malays or Bengali. This issue affects the tourism industry, the fishery and wildlife depa
rtments and a host of other industries in one way or another, it is an image that stands for All.
I need not go too deeply into the state of pullution in this state as most of us here are fully aware of the matter by just openning our eyes a little bit more to include the environment in our sights like the tourist do. Yes the tourists takes notice of the environment alot more than our average citizens do and if they choose not to revisit our island it is not a fault of theirs but ours, we can talk them to death about why they should visit us but what they see is what they relay to those who ask their opinions when they return to their homes not what they hear. However it is not this reason that we are suddenly deciding to take affirmative action about healing our river back to health, nope, we are doing it bercause it is time that we do some housekeeping in our state. What better time carry out a thourough housekeeping job than with the beginning of a new State Government. We will redesign the Rocket to become a broom and the PKR symbol that looks like and eye to become a garbage bag and we will make every school and institution in the state carry out their own individaul attack plan on this matter without any excuses, for education of the young and old is the key to our success long as well as shortterm. We need to educate the masses, mentally, and spiritually and thus we will approach all the religious denominations for their undevided support for our 'housekeeping project'. last but not least twe will insist upon the media to be fully responsive to our endeavors and make it their crusade as well. We will get all the NGOs and various other existing environmetal groups to become the spearhead for our motion, we will employ the various government bodies like the state laboratories and civil engineers to carry out the preliminary works of desigining and analyzing of the river status, what needs to b done and when. We will utillize the USM students to do soil smaples and various other studies as their contribution towards this venture and we will ask the Rich and famous the major industries, the kongsies and the various clubs an
d groups to pay for our project, hopefully not the Federal government.
Off course I have given a very simplified scenarion of this project which at later date will be studied and approached in a more proffessional manner making sure that legalities and incentives are met with for those who choose to participate. My idea is basically is to take the bull by the horns in making a clean start for the revival of the Island's glory, the glory that won the hearts and minds of those who used to visit us in the past. To return the pristine and clean water system that we used to enjoy like no other state and to most importantly to try and harness a collective mind among all our different racial groups and thoughts into one affirmative thinking machine in favor of the People and the State as a whole.
The Present CM may have already have his ideas about how to run the state but I hope that he will pause and consider my offer of a suggestion with an open mind.
I grew up on the river since the day i was born right smack in the middle of the Kampung Selut as the area was known in the past and most of my childhood life was spent waiting for the hight tide to arrive so that the water world fantasies of our childhood would come to life. This was in the early 50s and sixties before the area was developed. The hightide brought Morgan the Pirate, The Bucaneers, and hosts pof other sea faring characters to our childhood imagination as we swam our way towards the river mouth. The was all kinds of wildlife common to the mangrove environment, the Udang ketak, Ikan Tembakul, ikan Belachak, ketam selut, ketam batu, belangkas, siput lokan, siput balitong, biawak to name a few, which today has become extinct in this area. There were numerous species of birds to wake up to and fishes to trap in the mudholes, as a child growing up in this rustic life at the edge of Georgetown was a blessing for me and on looking back my heart is sick at what i see have become of my river.
The Sungai Pinang is only about six miles in length from the foothills of the Penang Hill range in Ayer Itam area somewhere to the sea and the whole six mles today is contaminated in one way or another. It has played vital roles in the past for those living on this Island not only as a source of water but that of a symbol for the State uniting the inhabitants who are racially pluralistic. To the newcomer this may not seem much to think about as the only sense they would have of the river is the stench that it gives off or the black brackish water that flows lifelessly int and out to the sea often laden with debris and floatsam opf garbage from the denizens of the island. To penangites, those born and raised on this island it is short of a bloody insult to our intelligence if not to our souls. We have allowed the river to deteriorate to such a state that despite all our modern technologies and advanced education the river is practically called a 'dead River'.
To cut to the chase on the matter as e know most politicians are always short of time especially on environmental issues, I am making a suggestion the present take into consideration of using the 'healing of the River' as a crusade that will unite the people into working towards a common goal. Let this be the clarion call for the various groups to come together and give all they got for the well being of one river that has been a common good to all of us regardless of who we are and this will be our legacy to our children. The present administration may have zillions of problems to work on concerned with zillions of issues left behind by the former administration and if not given serious thought over how this should be handled this admin too will be bogged down by the same issues till next ellection day. Tod do the unthinkable would be one option that the State can get a handle on all the issues and that is to not address them but allow them to continue on as they are while focussing all its attention on one unrelated issue which affects just about every walks of life, albeit politicians, doctors, rich man poor man Chinese or Indians , Malays or Bengali. This issue affects the tourism industry, the fishery and wildlife depa
rtments and a host of other industries in one way or another, it is an image that stands for All.I need not go too deeply into the state of pullution in this state as most of us here are fully aware of the matter by just openning our eyes a little bit more to include the environment in our sights like the tourist do. Yes the tourists takes notice of the environment alot more than our average citizens do and if they choose not to revisit our island it is not a fault of theirs but ours, we can talk them to death about why they should visit us but what they see is what they relay to those who ask their opinions when they return to their homes not what they hear. However it is not this reason that we are suddenly deciding to take affirmative action about healing our river back to health, nope, we are doing it bercause it is time that we do some housekeeping in our state. What better time carry out a thourough housekeeping job than with the beginning of a new State Government. We will redesign the Rocket to become a broom and the PKR symbol that looks like and eye to become a garbage bag and we will make every school and institution in the state carry out their own individaul attack plan on this matter without any excuses, for education of the young and old is the key to our success long as well as shortterm. We need to educate the masses, mentally, and spiritually and thus we will approach all the religious denominations for their undevided support for our 'housekeeping project'. last but not least twe will insist upon the media to be fully responsive to our endeavors and make it their crusade as well. We will get all the NGOs and various other existing environmetal groups to become the spearhead for our motion, we will employ the various government bodies like the state laboratories and civil engineers to carry out the preliminary works of desigining and analyzing of the river status, what needs to b done and when. We will utillize the USM students to do soil smaples and various other studies as their contribution towards this venture and we will ask the Rich and famous the major industries, the kongsies and the various clubs an
d groups to pay for our project, hopefully not the Federal government.Off course I have given a very simplified scenarion of this project which at later date will be studied and approached in a more proffessional manner making sure that legalities and incentives are met with for those who choose to participate. My idea is basically is to take the bull by the horns in making a clean start for the revival of the Island's glory, the glory that won the hearts and minds of those who used to visit us in the past. To return the pristine and clean water system that we used to enjoy like no other state and to most importantly to try and harness a collective mind among all our different racial groups and thoughts into one affirmative thinking machine in favor of the People and the State as a whole.
The Present CM may have already have his ideas about how to run the state but I hope that he will pause and consider my offer of a suggestion with an open mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment