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MOHON JGN DIKIRIM KE E-MAIL SAYA LAGI, SAYA
TDK TERMASUK DALAM LIST. P L E A S E ....
----- Original Message -----
From: HMP
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 6:46 PM
Subject: [PB] Fw: Malaysia News Subject: Malaysia News An Appeal to His Excellency Dr. Mahathir Mohamad,
Prime Minister of Malaysia
Your Excellency,
As a concerned citizen, I would like to express deep concern
over your remarks at the 4th Annual General Assembly of the United Malay
National Organization (UMNO) and the recent advertisement blitz in the local
news media by your government costing millions of taxpayers' money that
conspicuously endorse the controversial RM1.5 billion approximately US$395
million) incinerator project in Broga/Semenyih, Selangor. This project is
unpopular among certain sections of the Malaysian Rakyat and one that is causing
the affected Rakyat in Broga/Semenyih a lot of distress and unhappiness at
being victims of political exigencies with the relocation of the site from
Puchong to roga/Semenyih.
Alluding to the growing citizens' anxiety against waste
incineration, Your Excellency rebuked the Rakyat of being disdainful and
impertinent for blocking policies intended for the "good" of Malaysia. Your
remarks come at a crucial time when the final environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) for the Broga incinerator project is being considered. It
appears to me that your words and the Housing and Local Government
Ministry-sponsored advertisements will have some bearing on the final EIA report
and that the project will be pushed through in spite of the health,
environmental and economic concerns as persuasively expressed by the Rakyat. In
your speech, Your Excellency
said: "We cannot behave like people who are already rich when we are
still a developing country. We have become so arrogant that the acceptable level
of pollution of people who are 10 times richer than us is not good enough for
us."
Do you mean to say that it is tolerable for the Rakyat to
suffer from a health-threatening and wasteful disposal method since Malaysia is
"still a developing country"? That the Rakyat, at this stage of national
development, do not deserve to enjoy the benefits of clean, healthy and
sustainable alternatives to incineration? That the cancers and other diseases
being suffered by communities hosting incinerators in developed countries are
acceptable to Your Excellency? I hope NOT. As a medical doctor, I expect that
you would put the health interest of the Rakyat over and above an industry
obsessed with profit, and exert your authority to prevent the horrors of
incineration from ever occurring in Malaysia.
Your Excellency cannot ignore the many scientific studies
demonstrating incineration as a flawed process that causes ill-health.
Incinerating waste produces a toxic concoction of over 200 toxic or potentially
toxic chemicals that can cause cancers, birth defects, asthma attacks, breathing
ailments and allergies. In fact, four of the 12 chemicals being targeted for
minimization and elimination under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POPs) are by-products of incineration, particularly dioxins,
the most notorious pollutants from incinerators. Even with so-called
"state-of-the-art" pollution control equipment, heavy metals and toxic chemicals
are still released into the environment.
I would like to inform Your Excellency that popular opposition
to incinerators is worldwide. In all continents, public interest groups and
affected communities have stopped incinerator plans, closed existing
incinerators and lobbied for laws and regulations that forbid or restrict waste
incineration. Even respected health organizations have spoken against waste
incineration: the World Federation of Public Health Associations, the
International Council of Nurses, the Physicians for Social Responsibility, the
Health Care Without Harm, to name a few. As signatory to the Stockholm
Convention, your Government is aware that the treaty has gravely implicated
waste incineration as part of the global POPs catastrophe and has called
for
the promotion of alternative processes to prevent the formation of new POPs. I understand the concern of your Government about the
management of the increasing volume of municipal discards, which certainly must
be addressed to protect the health, environmental and economic interests of the
nation. Fortunately, healthy, sustainable and financially viable alternatives to
incinerating waste exist and are being carried out, with astounding results, in
many communities. A holistic strategy that puts emphasis on waste
prevention, segregation at source, recycling and composting, with active community support and participation, will render incinerators and other back-end approaches to managing discards irrelevant, protect people's health and save valuable taxpayers' money from being squandered. I believe that the long-term well-being of the Rakyat will be
put at grave risk by the multi-million incinerator project. I therefore appeal
to Your Excellency to rethink your position, listen to the Rakyat and cancel the
entire project forthwith. I further urge Your Excellency to join the communities
of citizens who are moving away from the usual burn and bury approach and are
now implementing policies and measures towards clean production, zero waste and
sustainable approaches to managing discards.
Very sincerely yours,
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