PKR DUN 19 Kepayan P174 Penampang, Sabah.

PKR Sabah criticized bailout by EPF on FGVH & FELDA should return 306,000 acres of state land to Sabahans.
Failure of BN Government to regulate the Perennial Worsening Pollution of Rivers will kill the Tourism Sector in Sabah.
Mewakili pimpinan PKR Sabah bersama Tok Guru Ust Hadi Awang - Presiden PAS, Yb Jimmy Wong- Pengerusi DAP Negeri Sabah, Yb DSP Lajim Ukin - Pengasas PPS di Program Eidil Fitri - Pakatan Rakyat Sabah 2012 di Perkarangan Pejabat PKR Cabang Sepanggar pada 1 September 2012
Mewakili pimpinan PKR Sabah bersama Tok Guru Ust Hadi Awang - Presiden PAS, Yb Jimmy Wong- Pengerusi DAP Negeri Sabah, Yb DSP Lajim Ukin - Pengasas PPS di Program Eidil Fitri - Pakatan Rakyat Sabah 2012 di Perkarangan Pejabat PKR Cabang Sepanggar pada 1 September 2012
Program Hari Raya 2012 bersama penduduk Kampung Peringatan, Kapayan.

PKR Sabah criticized bailout by EPF on FGVH & FELDA should return 306,000 acres of state land to Sabahans.

Posted: 16 Sep 2012 07:21 AM PDT

Media Statement by Dr Roland Chia – PKR Central Council Member cum PKR Sabah Secretary

PKR criticized bailout by EPF on FGVH & FELDA should return 306,000 acres of state land to Sabahans

PKR Sabah Secretary cum Central Council Member – Dr Roland Chia criticized the move by the BN government in getting the Employers Provident Fund (EPF) to bail out FGVH by accumulating shares of Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH) even as shares of the plantation giant sank to a new low yesterday, closing at RM4.68 a share or just 13 sen above its issuing price.

In the context of Sabah ,this listing of FGVH has also caused 306,000 acres of Sabah Land of which much of this land occupied by natives to be absorbed into this controversial listing.

According to filings with Bursa Malaysia, the country's largest pension fund's stake in FGVH have increased 5.4 per cent since September 3, the day before FGVH plunged below the RM5 mark.

FGVH was the second largest initial public offer (IPO) in the world this year and its shares rose 20 per cent in the first day of trading to RM5.46 but have been in a general downward trajectory since.

FGVH could also struggle with its ageing oil palm trees that account for 53 per cent of the 320,000 hectares of oil palm estates which rank among the highest in the industry and a replanting exercise would mean even more loss of income for the group during the period it takes for trees to mature.

FGVH also reportedly suffers from a productivity in terms of tonnes per hectare that ranks as the third lowest among the major Malaysian plantations firms.

In the context of Sabah, this is another bad deal, instead FELDA should return 306,000 acres of land to the State of Sabah because FELDA had breach its promise and reneged from its obligations to develop the land given to FELDA intended to serve the interest of the people of Sabah back in the 1970s.

The BN Government should explain to the people and account for its failure and incompetence in allowing FELDA to deviate from the original objective after having allocated some 306,000 acres of State land to FELDA for land settlement schemes intended to serve the benefit of the people of Sabah. FELDA was required to provide a housing plot of land to each settler and his family together with a dwelling house built on it within the residential land of the scheme. In fact, FELDA only used less than 10% of the land allocated to it by the State Government for the intended settlement scheme involving only about 1,500 settlers each allocated with 14 acres of land.

Instead, FELDA continued to occupy and develop the massive acreage of land into oil palm plantation as landowner utilizing public funds and generating billions of revenues and profits for the benefit of the Federal Government. I am not surprised the revenues from Sabah had contributed substantially to the RM400 million FELDA office complex built recently in Kuala Lumpur. Dr Roland Chia lamented.

Failure of BN Government to regulate the Perennial Worsening Pollution of Rivers will kill the Tourism Sector in Sabah.

Posted: 16 Sep 2012 07:12 AM PDT

PKR Sabah Secretary – Dr Roland Chia who is also PKR Central Council member urged both Federal Ministry of Plantations Industries and Commodities and the Federal Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of whom the Minister and Deputy Minister are Sabahans and also the State Ministry of Envronment and Tourism to stop playing the "BLAME GAME" and immediately come together to resolve the perennial problem of worsening pollution of all the affected rivers in Sabah especially the Kinabatangan River the longest river in the state of Sabah.

This perennial pollution is also hurting the tourism industry in Sabah which has raked in a whopping amount RM5 Billion in the year 2011. This problem will definitely see revenue generated by tourism to disappear rapidly. Revenue from tourism comes in 2nd after royalties from Oil, Gas & Timber to the state coffers. Tourist locally and from abroad paid top dollar to come to watch the Kinabatangan Wildlife were upset to see the black gooey substance flowing near the boats. Such black gooey substance will definitely hurt and kill the wildlife. Many tourism related economic activities especially the villagers will definitely be deprived of their livelihood derived from tourism.

The main culprit of the source of pollution is the indiscreetly dumping of POME – Palm Oil Mill Effluents. It is believed that only 25% of the hundred over palm oil mills in Sabah managed to pass the MPOA guidelines in processing POME. The worsening pollution due to Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) that has caused high levels of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD3) as high as 55% has threatened the lives of myriad of iconic wildlife such as proboscis monkeys, orang utans, pygamy elephants and birds along the Kinabatangan river. It is also believed that other source contributing to the high levels of BOD3 are generated by population areas, human activity including lodges and resorts and other forms of agriculture. In the other parts of Sabah, angry poor villagers in Sook and Keningau has reported of the POME all of a sudden had wiped out their fresh water fish tagal system, clean water for drinking, cooking, bathing, gardening, irrigation and livestock.

In short – what POME can do to the river is take dissolved oxygen out of the water of a river, all aerobic fish, prawns and other aquatic life, will die. After it has emptied out all the dissolved oxygen, anaerobic bacteria take over and turn the river into a foul smelling torrent of toxic water filled with deadly chemicals: ammonia and hydrogen sulphide. If a stream, creek or river is relatively small, palm oil mill effluents (Pome) will kill it swiftly, turning it into a dead zone overnight.

It is the onus of The Ministry of Plantations Industries and Commodities to exercise authority to shut down and suspend licenses of errant millers however on the other hand the recommendations must come from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to enforce and control the environment.

Mewakili pimpinan PKR Sabah bersama Tok Guru Ust Hadi Awang - Presiden PAS, Yb Jimmy Wong- Pengerusi DAP Negeri Sabah, Yb DSP Lajim Ukin - Pengasas PPS di Program Eidil Fitri - Pakatan Rakyat Sabah 2012 di Perkarangan Pejabat PKR Cabang Sepanggar pada 1 September 2012

Posted: 16 Sep 2012 06:41 AM PDT