Malaysians, especially Sabahans, must be alerted to this coming “devastation” if the Tanjung Aru Eco Development (TAED) project is carried out by the state body Tanjung Aru Eco Development Sdn Bhd.
I would urge “Stop DHI’s proposal on TAED reclamation/expansion of Tanjung Aru Beach (TAB), Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (Borneo), Malaysia”. For many good reasons, we should not disturb nature too much.
Please don’t compare TAED with other beach front projects like STAR, Sutera Harbour, Segama, Sinsuran, Suria Sabah, Jesselton waterfront, SICC and Oceanus because Tanjung Aru Beach is the last environment bastion, and it deserves to preserved for posterity.
We are fully aware that greater publicity in the mass media had been given to the so-called improvement to TAB when nothing is there for us to intervene as we do not know nature perfectly. So don’t act like God.
Can we produce or reproduce this scenic view for miles by spending RM5 billion in the budget of TAED?
We know we cannot and so leave it as it is, but some minimum improvement would be desirable.
This is my new proposal for Tanjung Aru Beach in Kota Kinabalu. The present scenario and expected consequences are:
1. Stop what (monster) had been proposed by DHI with massive reclamation for a sea-front deep beach (not natural gradual beach) and much extended acreage for Tanjung Aru Eco Development (TAED) from 190 acres to 558 acres (the figures are not certain).
2. There are lots of questions and issues with the TAED project as per DHI, but without a feasibility study.
3. TAED is not an eco project but an economic one, which will fail miserably with tremendous financial complications and losses.
4. There were very little town hall meetings prior to the launch of TAED on Sept 16, 2013, and similarly little and obscured town hall meetings until today, so much so it is deemed a “private and personal” project as we need the third Special Environment Impact Assessment to provide for the various changes that are still very much questioned over three years.
5. Could a state project be headed by a retired/elderly businessman as the chief executive officer in TAED Sdn Bhd? The chief minister has yet to give details in a White Paper.
6. When TAED fails in its commitments, environmental and otherwise, the losses of the project can be up to RM50 billion, to be borne by ordinary taxpayers and consumers, who have nothing to do with TAED.
7. The losses of up to RM50b (all listed in my seven-page submission made on Oct 31, 2016), should be borne by a bank guarantee taken out by TAED Sdn Bhd and all the parties concerned in the promotion of this “doomed” project.
Now, my proposal with the possible ultimate avoidance of losses, including claims for damages and compensation of the state company in business in TAED, amounting to RM50 billion, is to do the following:
8. Do minimum repair (erosion and pollution) to the TAB, environmentally and otherwise, mainly due to the total neglect of the city authorities for 50 years.
9. Improve the greenery habitat (prime land) within the city for the local people, outsiders, tourists and the birds for more fresh air to complement what we get at the TAB.
10. Instead of the massive concrete jungle (commercial/residential) and the questioned golf course (not really environment friendly), we should initiate a Botanic Garden to further promote the greenery habitat for many exotic and endemic plants and trees for all.
11. Some suitable structures and infrastructures to support the Botanic Garden, plus whatever existing features to be retained in pockets of the existing land for heritage consideration.
12. The new proposal should involve many more people with various interests in diversity so that the people would still enjoy a natural beach that is priceless and with easy accessibility, without the devastating financial consequences of an artificial beachfront that cannot be better than the existing one.
Please support the new proposal by signing this petition on Stop DHI’s proposal on Tanjung Aru Eco Dev, Borneo Malaysia in Change.org
Details are also regularly updated on this site in the social media.
Read more: https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/361338#ixzz4OpGuKvig
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