IN his column “Nature’s gift for all Penangites”, the writer of the “Local Counsel” column at The Sun Daily wrote about the need to preserve the natural environment on Penang Hill so that it remains a place where everyone, rich or poor, can visit and, if I may add, enjoy.

He was strongly supported by Prof Dr Hans-Dieter Evers of the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, who emphasised that it is better to leave nature alone as much as possible.

It is not difficult to leave nature alone, if only the greed of the developers is firmly kept at bay by the government. Just look at what “developed” Cameron Highlands has become!

From time immemorial and up to the 1960s, coconut oil remained frozen for 24 hours and was sold by cutting chunks of it and weighing. When developers were allowed to move in to “develop” the highlands without strict control, everything changed.

Today, coconut oil remains liquid 24 hours a day. That is a very simple measure of the destruction of nature on Cameron Highlands which has caused temperature to rise by a big margin.

Penang is endowed with more than one of nature’s gifts. The hills, notably Penang Hill, is one of them.

The other invaluable gift is the sea surrounding Penang, and particularly those parts of it that people flock to during weekends and holidays. Beaches on the northern coast were one of these places.

These have been monopolised by the luxury hotels where locals other than hotel guests are not permitted.

The only remaining small beaches available for the locals are situated on the south of the island. Thousands of them flock there, to relax for a few hours, to de-stress from the stressful life in the city, living in small, cramped apartments.    

These few remaining beaches are nature’s therapeutic centre for relieving the stress of city life. But they are under serious threat of being destroyed for good.

The destruction of these few small beaches will take place if the Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project is approved.   

The PSR, a developers’ greed driven project, should not be approved lest it destroys the rich fishing grounds (so stated by the Ministry of Agriculture), the livelihood of 5,000 fishermen, the daily fresh seafood supply to Penangites and also the few small beaches that act as an invaluable therapeutic centre for relieving the stress of city life for the ordinary people.

In the shadows of climate change that is ongoing and will accelerate in the coming years, what other and devastating effects the PSR project could have cannot be predicted by experts. The sea, too, is a very sensitive environment.

Thus, in addition to protecting and preserving Penang Hill, the seas on the south of Penang island also must be equally protected and preserved. The government should not pander to the developers’ grandiose “development” projects. – September 29, 2019.

* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.