Malaysia: CSR Report Card 2008 – Part 3 (Environment)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues were highlighted in 2008 by the press, although the CSR angle was not explored. The CSR Digest‘s first editorial is a report card on how businesses fared on the CSR front in 2008, based on press clippings and news reported during the year.

Under Construction by Mickka

In the first part, Malaysian CSR marketplace issues were explored, while the second installment discussed CSR at the workplace issues. This installment will be on the environment.

Malaysia’s ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc (EMEPMI) was reported to have allocated RM2 million this year under its CSR program, meant for the use of conservation and education. Upstream planning manager Choong Yen-Li said the company hoped to educate the public — especially children — to take care of the environment.

Carbon Trading

Malaysian corporate giant, YTL Corp, took a major stake in what is believed to be Malaysia’s largest carbon credit consultancy, reportedly  seeking opportunities in the palm oil industry. Although not purely a CSR issue, carbon trading is a relatively new business opportunity which promotes environmentalism.

The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) gives businesses in developing countries the opportunity to sell carbon credits, or Certified Emission Reductions, in global commodity markets when they cut their output of environmentally harmful substances.

Carbon Fiber by Xero Sama

The new Malaysian company, called YTL-SV Carbon, expects to be handling 1,000 projects within three years, compared to the 30 current projects. Another Malaysian example of a company involved in a CDM project is Bumibiopower.

Somewhat surprisingly, the HSBC Climate Confidence Monitor 2008 survey found that many considered climate change a greater concern than the economic dip. According to HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd deputy chairman and CEO, Irene M. Dorner, concern over climate change can be attributed to growing awareness. As such, it is likely that Malaysia will head further into carbon trading.

Logging

Meanwhile, the press highlighted the struggle between logging companies and indigenous folk especially in East Malaysia. Aside from various blockades set up by the native folk, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, a grassroots community NGO dealing with environment and development issues, claimed in August 2008 that unnamed plantation companies, with the authorities, had forcibly removed natives from their land in the Bintulu district.

Logging Off by Wild Places

According to news reports, the native folk claim that concessionaires or contractors have gone into villagers, destroying the villagers’ long houses. Other allegations include the felling of rubber trees cultivated by villagers, leaving the villagers with no source of income, and also polluting of the river, which leaves rain only as the source of water for the native folk.

The natives stated that the land belonged to them for hundreds of years, even before Malaysia was formed. As such, the native folk claim native rights over the land. It is not clear if the dispute has been resolved.

Also, natives in the Baram district of Sarawak claimed a “private land-development giant [used] foul means to forcefully take over their ancestral land”. The news also contained allegations that the private consortium, involved in logging, oil-palm and construction, was harvesting a protected species of wood, the endangered Engkabang trees. As with the previous case, no further news has been reported on this dispute.

Related to this are reported allegations that delegates in the UMNO polls in March of 2009 are in the hands of 1,560 contractors. UMNO, or the United Malays National Organization, is the leading parting in the ruling coalition, the National Front.

Corruption by Grelin Machin

Former Sabah attorney-general (AG) Herman Luping wrote this in his opinion piece entitled ‘Money politics the new curse in our society’, in the Borneo Post on 30^th November. Luping cited a ‘reliable source’ had informed him that contractors will comprise 60% of some 2,600 delegates at the next UMNO general assembly.

Luping lamented that the politics in the resource-rich Northern Borneo states have been engineered by politicians, struck by the ‘sure get rich quick’ phenomenon of the ‘timber curse’. His piece is an indirect indictment on logging concessionaires in the two states.

Sustainable development

Kuala Lumpur experienced heavy rainfall which caused three landslides within days of each other at the end of 2008. Extensive damage and destruction were also caused to buildings, cars and animals.

The first landslide caused the death of two sleeping sisters, who were buried alive when the landslide crashed on their bungalow. The rest of the family escaped unhurt. It has been reported online that the developer, KDEB, is giving RM50,000 as compensation to the victims’ family. The family also has been given the use of a house as the family’s temporary home.

Erosion by Hilary Clay

Fortunately, the second landslide caused no injury or deaths. The landslide occurred next to Commerce Square and Bangunan Amanah Raya along Jalan Semantan in Kuala Lumpur. CIMB, which is housed in Commerce Square, released a statement the following day to assure its customers that all its “employees were immediately evacuated from the two buildings yesterday evening as a precautionary measure after the landslide occurred. No one was injured in the incident and the buildings remain closed for operations today.”

While the focus of criticism was directed at the local authority for having allowed the development, the question arises as to whether the developers, with CSR as a guide, should have gone ahead with the development.

In relation to the last landslide, which took place at Bukit Antarabangsa, a high-end suburb in Kuala Lumpur,  it was reported that four people were killed and 43 homes destroyed in a nearby suburb in 2006, while in 1993, the 12-storey Highland Towers collapsed, burying 48 people mainly maids and children.

Erosion by One Tough One

The Malaysian government issued a stop-order on all hillside development, but the public appears to be dubious about the order. Bar Council chairperson, S Ambiga, was quoted as saying that it was time the government to put people before profit. The same can be said to the developers involved.

Next week:

CSR Report Card – Part 4 (final installment)

• The Plight of the Penan
• Bidayuh Community turn down buyout for the Sarawak Begum dam
• Express bus accident with no press follow-up
• Transparency International Malaysia’s Transparency International’s 2008 Bribe Payers Index (BPI)