THE NST Leader last week touched on a point made by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 20th Asia Oil & Gas Conference (AOGC 2019) last month.
He said: “We must therefore recognise the potential of our neighbours to forge strategic alliances on the back of a ‘prosper-thy-neighbour’ concept that promotes the concept of shared prosperity.”
Dr Mahathir has been consistent on this concept. He first spoke about it on Sept 20, 1997 at the annual seminar of the World Bank in Hong Kong.
His speech has been popularly dubbed “Dr Mahathir’s famous speech”.
He said: “In case you are wondering about what is meant by prosper-thy-neighbour, I would like to explain again that it simply means if you help your neighbour to prosper, you will prosper along with it.”
Penang’s grandiose 4,500-acre sea reclamation project is a total opposite of this vision, being a “beggar-thy-neighbour” project.
It will not only destroy the huge, rich fishing grounds in the south of Penang island, it would also affect the livelihood of about 5,000 fishermen and their families, millions of consumers who depend on fish for their daily protein intake and damage the ecology of the sea and lead to erosion.
The negative effects will spill over to other areas as well.
Most affected would be the areas where sand would be removed before being dumped in the reclamation area.
Again, this will endanger the livelihoods and ecology of areas outside Penang — its neighbours.
Those supporting the project have made themselves blind and deaf not only to the federal government’s own authority on fishing, but also to the reality of climate change and the consequences if humans do not stop their destructive activities.
The agriculture and agro-based industry minister recently furnished facts and figures in Parliament that are a damning indictment of the reclamation project. Down south, Singapore’s Minister of Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli, just about 10 days ago, acknowledged that “time is running out” and tackling climate change was a priority for Singapore.
Climate change is not a fairy tale, but a scientifically proven phenomenon that is taking place at an accelerated pace.
There seems to be something unholy in the way the Penang government is ignoring all these factors that will have profound negative effects on Penang in the long run.
They are being irresponsible.
The reclamation project should be called off as it is destructive in many ways.
Penang is not going to go bankrupt if the project is cancelled, but it might destroy the island if it is allowed to go on.
RAVINDER SINGH
Batu Maung, Penang