Thursday, February 23, 2012

Time not ripe for green politics?

Time not ripe for green politics

| February 21, 2012. Edited for accuracy. Originally published by Free Malasia Today.

Many doubt that the Green Party of Malaysia will make any impact in the immediate future.

PETALING JAYA: The all new Green Party of Malaysia has stirred up some excitement among political observers, but the question that seems to be on everyone’s mind is whether it can survive the rough and tumble of Malaysian politics.

Analysts whom FMT interviewed generally welcomed the emergence of a political organisation dedicated to protecting the natural environment, but agreed that it would take some time—perhaps decades—before it could make any impact at the polls, largely because there are not many Malaysians who are passionate enough about green issues.

“Anybody can form a party, but whether it can grow and get the support it needs is another thing,” said Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Jayum Jawan, a professor who teaches politics and government.

“I don’t think they will be able to deliver the votes. They don’t have the political base.”

The party, which is yet to be registered, was founded by Azlan Adnan, a 53-year-old former journalist who is now an environmental activist. He told FMT recently that the party was looking at the long term in trying to “change the political landscape” and was not likely to field candidates in the next general election.

Jayum said he was confident that the party would get the support of NGOs and environmentalists, but not the public in general.

“Environmentalists are not a significant portion of the electorate and mainly live in Kuala Lumpur. The environment is only now becoming important, but still not as important as it is in western society. The party will get support from the middle class, who like abstract things like that.”

KS Balakrishnan, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Universiti Malaya, said it would take Malaysians another 20 to 30 years before they could accept a political party with a green agenda.

Bread and butter issues

“The party will be a failure,” he said. “It can’t exist at this moment. We’re a long way away from that. Malaysia is not ready yet.

“Environmental issues are important, but Malaysians are still looking at bread and butter issues, about political stability, efficient delivery of the public service system.”

The Sabah Environmental Protection Association (SEPA) has declared its support for Azlan’s (photo) initiative and urged other NGOs and environmental groups to do the same. Its president, Wong Tack, told FMT: “There is a total absence of a green voice in Parliament right now, and this man’s effort in building a green party is timely. Our current politicians are ignorant about environmental issues.

“We have a country without concern about global warming. Our rivers are polluted. Our mangrove forests are disappearing, and oil palm wastes go into our river systems. We just don’t have the political will to do anything about all this.

“The Green Party is necessary and I respect Azlan. I hope he can carry on and promote this party.”

Political analyst Wong Chin Huat of Monash University said the party should push for local government elections, noting that Europe’s green parties initially gained ground through such elections.

“I’m happy to have a green party coming on board,” he said, “but at this point, they don’t have a chance of winning at the federal or state level. If you have local government elections and you win, and people see how well you work, you can later make inroads into Parliament or the state assemblies.”

Even in urban areas, he said, a green party would not get more than 15% of the votes in a general election.

“The current election system is very much against smaller parties, and even Pakatan is not keen on changing it,” he said.

He suggested that the Green Party band up with other small parties, such as PSM.

Emulating Germany

Wong also said small parties would probably gain some ground if Malaysia had a “mixed member proportional representation” electoral system like in Germany.

“This system is where voters would have two votes, one vote for the constituency candidate and one for the party list. After meeting a threshold of a certain percentage of votes, the party would be entitled to a proportionate number of seats on the party list even if its candidates don’t win. That’s a fairer system than the one we have now.”

Wong also suggested that the government provide political financing to parties who win a certain number of seats. “Currently, the ruling parties would pass funds to their representatives and in turn they pass the money to cronies, which would support them financially too. Basically, both BN and Pakatan Rakyat are in the same game.”

Lim Teck Ghee, who heads the Centre for Policy Initiatives, also applauded Azlan for his initiative.

“Anything that can take us away from the destructive and negative influences of race and religious politics is welcomed,” he said. “Green politics is certainly on the rise in other parts of the world. It was only a matter of time before Malaysia followed.

But he said that party would probably need to align itself with bigger and more established parties like its counterparts in Europe had done.

“Eventually, as we see in Europe now, they have become popular and influential stake players in European politics,” he said.

“It’s going to take time, but we have to start somewhere. It is a party of the future, but the future really can come more quickly than we realise it.”

Lim said there were enough environmental issues for the party to address. He mentioned deforestation, water and air pollution and congestion and overcrowding in urban areas.

“The challenge for the Green Party is to try to integrate these with other concerns of the public, such as corruption, poverty and the rising cost of living.”

He said the party would draw many young voters and the educated middle class.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Green Party to stay out of polls

Teoh El Sen

| February 17, 2012 Originally published by FMT. This version edited for clarity and accuracy.

Party founder Azlan Adnan says that more time and resources are required before the Green Party can contest in an election.

INTERVIEW

PETALING JAYA: The soon-to-be-registered Green Party of Malaysia will most likely not be fielding any candidates for the upcoming general elections.

The party’s founder, Azlan Adnan, told FMT that the party was still in its infancy and required more time and resources.

“Forming this party is a long-term plan to change the political landscape, a general election is a short-term thing,” he said.

Azlan said that to win a seat, it was the bare minimum to “cultivate” a constituency for at least a year and spend RM1 million to fund ceramah, donating to funerals and other welfare work.

“Because I don’t have RM1 million to spare and neither have I identified a constituency, it is unlikely for me to stand at this moment. There is no point standing and losing; and losing the deposit as well. It is not an ego trip to stand as a candidate.

“We are not in politics to make money. Others may become MPs just because they get certain privileges and to be privy to certain information… which they can turn into money. We, on the other hand, are here to make a difference,” he added.

Asked about the party’s alignment, Azlan said that at present, the Green Party was more inclined towards Pakatan Rakyat.

On how he differentiated his party from other environmental NGOs, the father of two said he would still continue to work with them and build on the good work of environmental NGOs.

“But because they are NGOs, there are boundaries to what they can do, primarily because they are funded by government grants. So as to not jeopardise these grants, they can’t be too vocal on certain issues. Their mentality is to do some good work rather than making too much noise and not getting any grants and can’t do any work at all,” he said.

Azlan said that as a political force, he wanted the Green Party to influence public policies which were often “already written about and researched by the NGOs themselves but not implemented because of the lack of political will”.

“For example, there have been things written about sustainable public transport, which is the industry with the biggest usage of energy. If we can have more sustainable transport, then you consume less energy and become more green,” he added.

Nuclear is not the way forward
Azlan said Malaysia could also change the way it managed its energy production to renewable energy.

“For a long time, I really believed that nuclear energy was the future and that it would save us. But look at the Fukushima disaster in Japan, a country where everything is so orderly and we know there is really so much unpredictability that it is not worth the risks,” he added.

He said renewable energies were the way forward, but this should be limited to small-scale projects such as solar, mini hydro and wind energy and “not like the big Bakun Dam project which is increasingly proving to be a white elephant”.

“When you flood an area of forest as big as Singapore to make a dam, what it really means is that there is land as big as Singapore ripe for clear cutting for someone to make money from timber,” he added.

Azlan said that a hydro-electric system, called the Gorlov Helical Turbine, could even be inserted into normal SYABAS water pipelines.

“These are very efficient, do-able, things but the present goverment does not have the political will to make it happen. So these things have to be people-driven, you have to demand it,” he said.

Lynas the first battle
Asked about the political party’s first agenda, Azlan said it would definitely be the Lynas rare earth plant in Kuantan.

“There is a war and Lynas will be our first priority. The Lynas project is symptomatic of bigger problems. It will affect health and you are contaminating the environment,” he said, noting that the 1987 Bukit Merah disaster was still undergoing a RM300 million clean-up.

Other issues the Green Party would take up include food security, water, housing, poverty and other basic human needs.

“Food security is not a national priority in Malaysia, it is very sad. When there is flood in Thailand, food prices here go up. We should be insulated from that but we are so dependent on Thailand,” he said.

Azlan said that big companies like Sime Darby had enough resources to go into full-scale food farming but were only interested in the more lucrative oil palm.

“We should have these big companies diversify into other food, including fruit, items. An example is mangosteen; it is not grown commercially because it takes around eight years to harvest. But if we continue that (thinking), it will become extinct,” he said.

Azlan said, among other things, Malaysia should explore other sources of food that were available, adding that there were numerous indigenous food sources consumed but not sold commercially.

“There are so many things grown in the kampungs but not sold in the market, whereas there are some things not grown here but flown in halfway across the world. Malaysia should be exploring plants which are growing in the local habitat and then we'll have real organic food,” he said.

Azlan said he did not consider “organic” food to be green if it is packaged in plastic and shipped around the world.

Change in mindset needed
On the logging situation in the country, the Green Party leader said what Malaysian companies were doing was not “forestry” but “timber mining”.

“It is not ecologically sound to be cutting down the forest which has 800 species of trees per acre and only replant with one species, which is usually going to be oil palm. We are actually changing the physical landscape and the ecosystem,” he said.

Azlan said one of the main goals of the Green Party was simply to “make things work”.

“Because when things don’t work, we have a lot of wastage; we want to be more efficient and use our resources more optimally,” he added.

“Take a Coke can. You use a lot of energy to process aluminium, ship it and put sugar, water and caffeine into the cans. Contrast that with coconut water, which is in a biodegradable container. The coconut water is so sterile that in an emergency you can inject it into someone in lieu of glucose. It is also isotonic and has some electrolytes,” he added.

Azlan said the nation needed a change in mindset and must develop a “LOHAS” (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) mentality.

He said right now, the Green Party’s main task was to disseminate more information to more people.

“Knowledge empowers. You want people to be aware and make right decisions. At the end of the day, we want a better place and if everybody is green, we can have a better place to live in,” he said.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Going green towards colour-blind politics

Hacked By Digital Cat Hacked By Digital Cat
Sorry Admin

-[ Greetz to pc33.us, black-c0de.org ]-