KOTA KINABALU – The controversial Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) was never debated and approved in the Sabah assembly, said former Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal in reaction to an Al Jazeera news report over the carbon trade deal.
Speaking in reference to the said news report titled Very hush-hush: Borneo’s $80 billion carbon trade deal stokes controversy, Shafie refuted Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan’s claim in the report that the NCA has gone through due process.
“On December 6, 2021, I raised the NCA issue in the Sabah assembly and questioned the state government’s decision to sign the deal, which is seen as unfair and does not have any clear benefit for the people of Sabah.
“For the record, there are no motion papers brought into the state assembly by the government and therefore, (this) refutes the claim that it has been tabled and approved in the assembly.
“Such an irresponsible statement is equal to saying that all assemblymen, including the opposition, condoned and therefore are equally responsible for the NCA.
“This is unacceptable,” he said in a statement today.
The NCA terms include handing over the rights of Sabah's two million hectares of totally protected forests to Singapore-based firm Hoch Standard for the purpose of carbon trading for 100 years.
Shafie said the agreement has been sealed without public consultation and that the firm, which has never done any carbon trading before, raises pertinent questions.
The deal was signed by the Sabah Chief Conservator of Forests Datuk Frederick Kugan and witnessed by Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor and Kitingan in October last year.
Kugan has noted in the report that he was “pressured” to sign the agreement, knowing the NCA was “incomplete.”
The Sabah attorney-general had sent a letter in December to Dr Ho Choon Hou, allegedly from Hoch Standard, to provide further documentation on his role in the said firm within 14 days.
There has been no update on this front to date.
Meanwhile, Shafie urged all Sabah elected representatives to stop becoming brokers or middlemen to any suspicious international agreements such as the NCA.
“We don’t need this NCA to become a scandal that could destroy Malaysia’s image.
“We also urged the state government to cancel this deal after all the facts have been laid bare,” he said.
Shafie said the logging licences have already been frozen during the Warisan-PH-Upko government, and as Chief Minister at the time, he handed over thousands of hectares to indigenous communities.
He said the action of the current Gabungan Rakyat Sabah government is in clear contrast to theirs, claiming that the present leadership instead hands over lands to a foreign company for 100 years.
“For the record, Warisan is not against any effort to protect its natural resources, including the carbon trade deal.
“But we want such efforts to be done in transparency and with the highest integrity, taking into account the welfare of the indigenous people of Sabah,” he said.
As an alternative, Shafie proposed that the state government consider the carbon capture, utilisation and storage strategy, similar to the one adopted by several nations at present. – The Vibes, February 3, 2022
