|
 INTERVIEW - British
conservationist gives Malaysian PM good marks
MALAYSIA: July 22, 2002
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has struck a better
balance between development and conservation than many southeast Asian nations,
despite ill-advised dam projects like Bakun, leading conservationist David
Bellamy told
Reuters.
Mahathir's rule of two decades has seen Malaysians grow richer than all their
neighbours except Singapore, meaning that habitats like coral reefs, though
threatened, face less pressure than those of Indonesia and the Philippines.
"In some ways he's been the whipping boy for one model of development which
gets it right for the local people," Bellamy said during a visit marking
the start of a coral reef
research project on peninsular Malaysia's east coast.
"I think if I was him I would go into my retirement moderately proud of
what I'd done," said the British scientist and film-maker, once arrested at
an Australian anti-dam protest.
Although legal and illegal logging has damaged much of Malaysia's rainforest,
particularly in Sabah and Sarawak states on Borneo island, large tracts do
remain intact.
Mahathir shocked Malaysians last month by initiating steps to resign by late
2003, after more than 21 years in power.
He recently described as traitors foreign-funded locals opposing hydroelectric
dams, in the sort of talk which has tarred his reputation among greens fighting
environmental
destruction in the southeast Asian country.
Critics say Bakun will displace indigenous communities in Sarawak and destroy a
forest area the size of Singapore to supply power in a state with enough to meet
years of projected demand.
Bellamy said big dams like Bakun, recently revived after the late 1990s regional
financial crisis with a scaled-down budget of nine billion ringgit ($2.4
billion), just did not work.
"I would love to sit down and talk to him and say why. Whether I would be
able to persuade him that the Bakun dam was a damn silly idea, I don't
know," said Bellamy, who prefers wave power technologies being developed by
the U.S. navy. But he said Mahathir understood environmental issues better than
most political leaders, even when Bellamy first met him 20 years ago.
"I think he was the most switched on as far as the environment was
concerned...," said Bellamy, whose trademark beard and bounding enthusiasm
have become familiar to the world's television viewers through 30 years of
conservation programmes.
Story by Patrick Chalmers
| |
Advertisement
|
MTC’s
