Forest degazette: Wong accused of omitting facts (29.3.16)

Say No to Dash (SNTD) has demanded that the Selangor Government explain why it needs to degazette the Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve when the proposed highway will not run through it.

In a media statement today, a SNTD spokesman Mak Khuin Weng took Selangor executive councillor Elizabeth Wong to task for an alleged omission of facts in her response to criticism of the degazetting of forest reserves to make way for Dash.

Wong, the exco in charge of tourism, environment, green technology and consumer affairs, had defended the proposal to degazette 33 hectares of forest, saying Selangor had more than 250,000 hectares in reserve.

Mak said Wong’s response failed to explain the need to degazette the Sungai Buloh reserve.

“This makes us question whether the Selangor Government actually intends to degazette the Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve for the Dash project or whether there is another ulterior motive to it, with Dash being used as a convenient excuse.”

He accused Wong of hiding behind the statement that “the state only allows the clearing of forests for infrastructure and utility projects, for example roads, water, power and gas.”

He quoted a tweet from a member of the public. “If you cut down a forest reserve in one area, marking another area as a reserve does not replace the environment that was destroyed,” said the tweet. “You don’t create a forest by just planting trees, Yang Berhormat.”

Mak said Wong’s statement was “callous” and did not befit her role as the exco member for the environment.

“We would like to put on record that we are slighted by Wong’s willingness to respond to PSM (Parti Socialis Malaysia) and Gerakan while remaining silent to our accusations of her reneging on her promise in 2012 to stop the Dash highway,” he added.

Source: FMT