PRESS STATEMENT Wednesday, 13 November 2013 Kuala Lumpur – Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) said the ‘Suspension Order’ which was issued by the Sarawak Government to a logging company in Sarawak is a warning to others who flout the Forest Department’s guidelines and logging procedures.
TI-M strongly urges the State Government to step up its surveillance of the State’s natural resources – its huge acreage of rainforests thousands of years old – which are fast depleting due to irresponsible logging companies. The State Government should, in fact, not only stop the operations of the culprit, and take appropriate legal actions
The said logging company is also engaged in some disputes with native customary rights (NCR) land owners. It is the duty of the State Government to protect the NCR of the natives from being exploited. TI-M is of the opinion that good governance and integrity in managing the rainforests will help protect the State’s natural resources as well as the livelihood of the indigenous people in Sarawak.
For this reason, effective November 1, TI-M secretariat has appointed two FGI representatives, Marathamuthu Suppanainar, and Krystle Amanda Rabai Nasip, in Sabah and Sarawak, respectively, to monitor the management of forests in East Malaysia. Krystle, hailing from Kuching, holds a Master’s Degree in Science from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) majoring in Agrotechnology, while Marathamuthu has been an active member of the Sabah Environmental Protection Association (SEPA) since 1989, where he later served as an exco-member, vice-president and secretary-general, before becoming an advisor to the association. He is also a member of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) since 2008, and became the exco member of MNS-Sabah from 2008-11. Since 2010, he was picked as a National Council Member of MNS.
In Malaysia, the Forest Governance and Integrity (FGI) Programme under TI-M contributes to improve and strengthen transparency, integrity accountability to reduce corruption in forest governance.
The objective of TI-M’s FGI programme is to increase awareness and knowledge of the systemic structure of forest sector corruption and its challenges, strengthen cooperation amongst stakeholders, and development and application of forest monitoring tools.
The TI-M ForestWatch (www.timalaysia-forestwatch.org.my) is designed to be the eyes and ears of general public to ensure that the nation’s forest resources are protected from illegal activities.
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Issued by :
Dato’ Akhbar Satar, President Email : akhbar@transparency.org.my
Transparency International Malaysia Mobile : 017-256 0811
Dr KM Loi, Secretary-General Email : kmloi@transparency.org.my
Transparency International Malaysia Mobile : 012-303 6757
