THE issue of exploitation of the hillslopes in Cameron Highlands has attracted much public attention. It is also much associated with the large presence of illegal foreign labour, and lack of enforcement of land and environmental laws.
Such lack of concern for enforcement of our laws is quite perennial. We may have the best laws for regulating almost every aspect of our economic life, but, alas, they are as good as their enforceability.
We need a good strong team to enforce all our laws. However, we need more the culture of self-enforcement and self-sanction, too. In a country where ethics and integrity reign supreme, large enforcement teams are not required because observing laws and regulation is part of the social culture.
Invariably, countries where there is strong ethics for observing laws tend to be the developed countries, such as Japan and the Scandinavian countries. I am reminded of a statement by our previous prime minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, that our country has first-class infrastructure but third-world mentality. He is quite right.
Because of the relative absence of ethics in observing laws, the government has to establish enforcement teams in several ministries and agencies, such as in the ministries of transport, domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism, agriculture, and in the local governments. This is quite burdensome on the budget and on the nation’s resources. The manpower could better be deployed elsewhere in more productive occupations.
In as much as observing laws and regulations should be part of our culture, and this is clearly stated in our Rukun Negara (the principle of rule of law), concern for environmental protection and conservation need also to be promoted as a part of our value system. It has to be promoted as part of the broader national integrity system. It is one who has no integrity who compromises the environmental quality.
That is why I say it should be part of the bigger national integrity system. We have to maintain environmental sustainability so as to sustain our long-term economic growth as natural resources are our physical capital. We have the duty to pass on to our future children and grandchildren clean air and environment no less than, if not better, the quality of such resources when we inherited them from our forefathers. Neither have we the right to consume them beyond what we need and then leaving for the posterity much lesser stock of natural resources for them to benefit from.
Other than these ethical reasons, the issues of biodiversity and ecological balance are enough justification for society to put in place tough laws to maintain and enforce environmental preservation and conservation, and to complement these regulations with efforts to educate children and society of the importance of maintaining a good environment. It must be an agenda at all levels of education and in all subjects, be they natural sciences and technology, economics, law, as well as other social sciences.
Even our Friday sermons must often remind the congregations of the duty to preserve the environment, especially with the prophetic saying (hadith) that “one should not delay planting a seedling even if the following day is going to be the doomsday”.
The issues related to the environment are particularly challenging because of our appetite for achieving rapid economic growth. What we should achieve is rapid and sustainable economic growth, the core of our New Economic Model (NEM) of high-income economy. Unfortunately, the NEM has not been deliberated beyond official circles, let alone what it means to the society at large and its social values system.
The three elements of the NEM are the objectives of high income, the concern for sustainability and the objective of social inclusion. These elements must be debated and finally absorbed in our social system through education, economic planning and programme planning and implementation, and in our overall values system.
More importantly, it must be respected by the private sector, which accounts for about 85 per cent of total employment and where profit motivation is in the blood system. The private sector is assisted with subsidies in the forms of tax holidays and subsidised energy prices.
The profit that ensues from their business acumen should come with social responsibility, which, in this regard, includes the preservation of the environment and natural resources. Indeed, the rallying call of our private enterprises should be making profit with social responsibility and integrity.
Only in this manner can corruption can be wiped out, environment preserved and long-term economic sustainability assured. Also, only in this manner can enforcement be effective because respecting the laws and preserving our environment are part of our social values system.
Until and unless we reach that state, our nation cannot be referred to as a developed economy yet, our high level of income per capita, notwithstanding.