Musings of a semi-nomadic Penangite residing in Selangor.
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Hi! I’m Nur Sakeenah Omar, the Public Engagement Campaigner for Greenpeace Malaysia.
I was born in Penang in 1990 and lived there full time till I moved away for boarding school in 2005. After that you can call me semi-nomadic as I moved to a few different states till I’m (kinda) settled now in Selangor. However, if anyone asks me where I’m from, I will still proudly proclaim I am from Penang. Growing up there has been, and will always be a big part of my identity.
My first brush with the reality of the climate crisis was in 1997 during the big transboundary haze event. For once I got to experience my school closing due to an environmental disaster. To demonstrate how bad the haze was, I lived right next to the Tabung Haji building at the time, and my mother took this picture of me where we could barely see the outline of the building. But me as a 7 year old didn’t fully realise the severity of the situation, all I knew was that school was cancelled and I could stay home. I was happy. Ignorance is bliss~
In the years to come, transboundary haze became almost ‘seasonal’ coming by once a year, some years much worse than the others, but still there nonetheless, in every state, exacerbating the air pollution from local sources. When I used to drive to work everyday (in Klang Valley 2018-2019), my eyes would spy the level of haziness by how much of KLCC was visible to my naked eyes from a fixed area on the MEX highway. By observing it every day, I noticed even the smallest of changes to the air. Air pollution is inescapable.
Growing up in Penang, I could see the blue ocean and green hills all the time, that was what I knew. But as years went by after I started boarding school in a different state, I started witnessing first hand how the green hills disappeared little by little, how our shores were and are still being swallowed up by reclamations and reckless developments. Every time I came back from boarding school, there was a new bald patch on the hills that we used to drive by daily. My own backyard in Penang used to have a direct view of the ocean, across the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway. But now a very tall apartment complex built on reclaimed land stands there, blocking the scenery.
I started to question things, and my passion for environmental protection was ignited somewhere between the degradation, and remaining beauty of Penang. I did not think that I would head into this direction with my career though. But that’s a different story for another time.
Upon learning about the Penang South Island Reclamation project, I was truly horrified thinking , what if the plan actually becomes a reality. Surely the people involved could see how ridiculous the notion of this project was? Sadly, greed somehow seems to win over humanity and kindness time and time again, though not every time, so I held out hope for us to fight this. When the news that work on the project was about to start on July 1st, it was a really hard day for me.
My parents still lived in Penang until about a year ago when they fully retired and moved back kampung to Melaka, another hotspot for ocean reclamation issues, which devastates me to even look at, now that the reclaimed land lies mostly bare and useless. The biodiversity that was destroyed to make way for the project is now gone forever, and what do we have to show for it? Not that a thriving development would soften the blow, but at the very least not a useless and money-wasting endeavour that’s irreversible. I fear for Penang…
I now live in Selangor, there are of course countless environmental issues here too. One of the issues I directly worked on (as part of the Pertahankan Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara, PHSKLU coalition) was the Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve (KLNFR) that was de-gazetted (changed status from Permanent Forest Reserve to Mixed Development land) in secret on 5th May 2021 (only made public on 30th Aug 2021), then after intense public and political pressure, was thankfully promised to be re-gazetted back into a Permanent Forest Reserve. However, despite the outward appearance of a win for the stakeholders fighting for the forest, it is still not fully resolved. The re-gazettement was promised on 2nd Dec 2021, said to be completed by March 2022, but is still up in the air until today (one year and 4 months over time!).
This parallels my experience noticing the hills stripped bare in Penang. I do not wish to see anymore destruction to the beautiful and useful forests of Penang, Selangor, or anywhere else. They provide us with oxygen, protection from floods, carbon sequestration, and much much more below the surface of ‘economic benefit’. Who wants a repeat of the devastating floods of Dec 2021 in Selangor? I’m sure no one. Well, the climate crisis will get worse and bring more severe and extreme weather events with it. We have to put in place climate adaptation, which includes preserving what nature based solutions we have now, alongside mitigation works.
The case study of KLNFR, Penang’s 3 Island Reclamation project, and countless others have shown how certain elected representatives do not truly care for the rakyat’s wishes, wellbeing, health, and overall livelihood. We have to hold them accountable for their reckless, disrespectful, and greedy actions. We are the employers in this situation. They get voted in to work for us. We have to #Vote4Climate #UndiIklim and show them who’s boss.
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