Pembela Hutan 101

Personal write up to promote the event Pembela Hutan 101 held on 11th July, organised by Agora Society, GDI , KAMY and KLSAH socioeconomic committee.

I remember when I first met Meor, it was 2015, in an event called Kuala Sepetang Eco-discussion organized by then the state assemblyperson Chua Yee Ling. Meor was one of the panelists, he immediately left me a deep impression especially his effort in tracking the deforestation in Perak , listing the dates and calculating the sizes of permanent reserved forest degazettement. I never seen such work, it was impressive. Before this, to be honest, I had not encountered someone like him a full time field officer green activist! I remember I took initiatives to ask pertinent questions and discuss about the forest conservation policies, after the event I added him to be my Facebook friend, and he was generous and friendly enough to accept my request.

The second time when I met Meor, it was another workshop event by Justlife Commons at Tropicana Avenue. This was held on May 2018, the 2.5 hour workshop is entitled “The Basic of Forest Management in Peninsula Malaysia” conducted by none other but Meor. My friend Leerang Bato was actively promoting the event that time. I went and since then the workshop totally changed my perspectives on the national policies on forest conservation. When I’ve got deeper understanding , then I realize that the forest we entrust the government to manage but instead the authority uses too many ridiculous legal loopholes to transgress the forest! For example, I only discovered that the permanent reserved forest (PRF) is NOT really permanent (ie. forever), probably it could be a scam! Some gazetted forest area may have no trees at all (clearcutting), but it could still appear as PRF legally! If you refer to the official statistics on the forest cover in Malaysia, after 2 decades, you can find that the area size only reduced marginally. But could this be the truth? How come this impression is world’s apart from the frequent media reports on the deforestation?

Unfortunately, perhaps besides Penang island, most people in other areas do not show much concern about forest conservation/protection issue, unless they are the communities deeply affected by the consequences of deforestation such as Orang Asli, and flood victims (eg. in Kelantan). Obviously the gazettement of forest is effective as much as to the liking of the Menteri Besars and the state cabinet…some state governments and logging firms are more salivating on the economic values of the woods than preserving the trees alive. Try reason environment protection with them? They maybe are ignorant or pretend to be.

In recent years, thanks to Greta Thunberg, she injected new inspiration and ideas to global green movement, especially raising awareness among the youth on the pertinent environment issues. I believe now it is time for new faces to continue leading and growing the green movement. The much experienced veteran activist like Meor should inspire more youth and general public, passing down his deep knowledge and sharing his skills, so that the green movement will have capable successors to carry on the flags. This has to be early, especially when our common nature heritage has not been made ‘disappeared’, we have to act before this happens, correcting the unreasonable policies and phenomenon.

Meor’s charisma and persuasion, probably do not reflect on the prevalent webinar or online forum. He also prefers the ‘old-way’ for good reasons. Actually, back in March, I have already planned to have this workshop, but due to COVID-19 and the MCOs we postponed. Agora Society’s workshop series had been held successfully in the past on many issues such as media, education, finance, human rights, local democracy and critical thinking, now I feel it is the right time to resume. Green or environmental protection comes on top.

Since I co-found Agora Society, one major agenda for myself is to collaborate with other like-minded organisations, regardless of race, creed, gender or age, join force pushing for environmental protection. I believe it is one important aspect of showing social justice too, for our mother earth and future generations. I am so honoured and proud to work together with Klima Action Malaysia (KAMY), a trendy and growing NGO which is championing on climate change issues and our good old partner Socio-Economic committee of KLSCAH. We would ensure the 3-hour workshop this Saturday morning (11th July) to be a high quality one, not only aim to raise awareness (and change perspective) but planning for future actions. Meor shows his upmost sincerity and seriousness, willing to travel a long distance from Ipoh all the way down to KL for directing this workshop. This workshop would also have some group interactive sessions, with health measures and SOP in mind.

The workshop venue is in KLSCAH, registration fee is only RM20 (including light food and beverage, as well as workshop materials). I hope you could consider participating. Today is the final day for registration! So far the responses are good, but I hope more from my circle of friends could join too. The event description and registration link is in the event page itself.

Thank you for your attention, and I hope to see you this Saturday!

記得我首次遇見Meor的時候是在2015年十八丁州議員蔡依霖主辦的一場Kuala Sepetang Eco-討論會。當時他是受邀的一位主講人，他給我留下深刻的印象特別是他細數霹靂州州內的毀林行跡，羅列計算森林保留地被剝奪憲報的土地大小和日期前後。類似他這樣身體力行的全職田野綠色環保人，坦白說在這之前還未遇上。記得我在討論會時積極發問和探討森林保護政策，活動後就加了他成為我的面書朋友，他也很大方接受我的要求。

再次遇上Meor的時候，就是在2018年5月Justlife Commons在Tropicana Avenue舉辦一場別開生面、為時2小時半的馬來半島森林管理基礎工作坊（周澤南積極參與宣傳）。我報名參加，結果那場工作坊從此改變了我對我國森林保護政策的看法，因為深入一點探討了解後才發現我們託付政府管理的森林，有太多疑點和漏洞讓當權者輕易利用來蹂躪。比如說，所謂的‘永久森林保留地’原來並不永久，而且還可能是個騙局，有些憲報的地區甚至一棵樹都沒有了，卻還是可以‘合法’地歸類為永久森林保留地！如果再看我國森林覆蓋地的官方數據，接近兩個年代了，居然只是稍微減少而已，這個在現實世界裡是事實嗎？怎麼與媒體常報導的毀林事件印象相差那麼多、那麼遠？

可惜，可能除了檳島以外，其他地區人民對森林保護的綠色課題關注不太大，除非是直接受影響的社區如原住民和吉蘭丹大水災受害者。森林保護的憲報‘護符令’有時真的很兒戲，生死大權掌握在州務大臣手上，州政府和伐木商更垂涎林木的經濟價值，跟他們說環保好像對牛彈琴，他們似乎真不懂還是故意不懂。

所幸葛蕾塔近年來掀起一股新熱潮帶領大家，尤其是年輕一輩對氣象變化和環保的關注。我相信現在正是時候要新人繼續和擴大綠色鬥爭，身經百戰經驗豐富的Meor應啟發更多年輕一輩、傳授他的深厚知識和技巧，好讓綠色運動可以由新人接棒、發揚光大。這個要趁早，特別是趁我們共同的未來自然遺產還未被‘消失’前去糾正目前的一些荒唐政策和現象。

Meor的魅力和說服力，其實不在Webinar或網上論壇。早在3月時我已策劃了這個工作坊，奈何因為武漢肺炎和行管令而被迫展延。 群議社的工作坊系列，自從成功舉辦媒體、教育、財政、地方民主、批判性思考、人權等課題相關的工作坊（並取得好口碑），現在是綠色環保課題登場的時候。

自從發起了群議社後，我的其中一個重點議程就是結合各社團、不分種族宗教男女老少一起推動綠色環保，這是體現社會正義的重要部分。而我社有幸地能與關注環境正義新興但走在最前端的大馬氣象行動Klima Action Malaysia(KAMY)以及隆雪華堂社會經濟組合作，確保本週六（7月11日）早上的長達3小時的工作坊是相當高素質的活動，不止要做到啟迪民智，而為後續行動鋪路。Meor也十分有誠意，特地從怡保下來指導這個工作坊。工作坊也有一些（安全和衛生）小組互動環節。

工作坊地點是在隆雪華堂，報名費僅20令吉（包含飲食和講義文件），語言媒介是馬來語（若有不明之處，現場有人可以幫忙翻譯）。我希望大家可以踴躍報名出席，今天已是報名截止的最後一天。目前報名反應相當不錯，只是希望華語圈子的出席者可以多一些。活動詳情和報名鏈接在活動頁裡。

謝謝，希望我們週六見！