ALL Malaysian patriots, except unscrupulous environment exploiters, will surely welcome the government’s proposed Environmental Protection Act (EPA).

Indeed, it will give new hope for our environment, which has begun showing detrimental, dangerous and even deadly evidence of rapid deterioration.

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Ja’afar and his environment-friendly team, must therefore be commended for their strenuous efforts in pushing for this new legislation against destructive pollution. This punishing pollution has taken place for so long, so widely and so carelessly all over our country that we have become despondent.

The new law, therefore, gives us all new hope for the future of our environment and our country.

But why did it take so long to come about? Were vested interests, politics or sheer indifference responsible for this delay in introducing more effective laws to combat pollution?

But now, we are happier. We have a new and more comprehensive push to fight pollution. Here we have to give credit to civil society for urging the government to act more forcefully against environmental criminals. And, to be fair, the government also deserves appreciation for finally wanting to adopt tougher laws against polluters.

But will the proposed laws actually work?

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Public expectations have now been considerably raised. The government must thus deliver. But how do we know that these new environmental laws will come through and actually work for our benefit?

1. Firstly, we earnestly hope that the Attorney-General’s Chambers will approve and improve the 91 sections of the EPA, which includes 41 more provisions than before.  Let’s hope there is no watering down of the effectiveness of the proposed law. 

2. Secondly, we hope the new law will be updated to meet the new norms of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals and global best practices. This will ensure that our laws are up to date.

3. State governments have to give their full support for these new laws. If they are reluctant  to do so , then the whole legislative process could be badly delayed . If this happens, the rakyat will hope that the highly influential Council of Rulers will step in to advise state legislatures  to be more progressive and to save the day and Mother Earth as well.

4. The National Physical Development Council, together with the National Land Council, would be empowered to approve or reject high-impact projects. This move will certainly make a difference, as at present, the Department of Environment can only give advice. And its good advice were often ignored. This has led to preventable natural disasters, such as floods, landslides, river silting and inter alia coastal erosion, and poor animal husbandry and wastage released from farms. 

The new laws will remove the approving authority, power and influence of the state and local councils, which could cause serious state government resistance, as often corruption is also involved.

5. The proposed Environmental Management Tools would make it compulsory for industries and development sectors to self regulate.

This is a clever move as we cannot expect environment officials to be everywhere trying to catch prospective polluters red handed. 

Hence, civil society members and environmental activists, just armed with smartphones, can provide vital assistance to the authorities to arrest polluters fast, without any extra costs.

This would be an opportunity for civil society to give concrete support to combat pollution. Will civil society take the challenge? I am confident they will. 

Conclusion 

We have all suffered from rising pollution and deteriorating environmental levels in our beloved country. Posterity will suffer even more if we don’t tackle pollution more firmly and aggressively.

The federal government’s  proposed anti-pollution laws are therefore most welcome . We only hope that the new laws, with even more improvements from the attorney general and civil society groups, will be passed and implemented with strong political will. 

We also sincerely hope that civil society will be fully consulted and that its views will be diligently taken into account in finalising these new environmental laws, rules and regulations.

The rakyat must be assured that, finally, there is new hope for our environment with the early parliamentary passing of these new laws, in order for our rakyat to have more confidence and faith in our future. – November 20, 2017.

* Ramon Navaratnam is Asli Centre for Public Policy Studies chairman.