SHAH ALAM – A small group of protesters missed their chance to hand over a memorandum on Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve’s degazettement to PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim this morning.
Organised by the Shah Alam Community Forest Society, representatives from 12 civil society groups wanted to raise the degazettement issue to Anwar but waited for him at the wrong entrance at the Ideal Convention Centre here.
Instead, they met PKR representative Mohammed Raimi as the party continued its national congress today.
The memorandum, which was shared with The Vibes, stated that a coalition with 96,810 petition signatories, 14,484 community members, hikers and nature lovers in Selangor is appealing to Anwar for the following:
1. To respect the law by upholding the legal status of a 1,000-acre (404,686sqm) plot of forest in Section U10 Shah Alam, known as Bukit Cherakah Forest Corridor (BCFC) as protected under the Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve Gazette no. 278 constituted in May 1909.
2. To respect the wishes of the Selangor people to protect BCFC in its entirety for ecological, educational, as well as health and recreational purposes.
The group claimed that prior to the May 5 gazette notification no. 1645 was published, no public inquiry was carried out as required by state laws.
It also alleged that the degazettement was backdated 22 years to take effect on November 20, 2000.
The forest is home to more than 300 species of wildlife, including the endangered Malayan tapir, Sunda slow loris, white-handed Gibbons and hornbills.
The Selangor Forestry Department on July 10 was reported as saying that the gazette notification (G.N. 1645-2022) is to complete the delisting process that stopped around 2006.
Its director, Datuk Ahmad Fadzil Abdul Majid said that based on Section 13, Enactment (Application) of the Selangor State Forestry Act (EAPN) 1985, the state authority must notify of any permanent forest reserve area that has been degazetted.
He said based on records, the degazetting process for Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve took place from around 1991 to 2006 including an area covering 406.22ha.
“Various possibilities can be factors for the degazetting process to be put on hold at the Gazette Plan stage, which is PW1443. Thus, the gazette notification issued on May 5 was backdated to refer to the decision of the State Executive Council in 2000.
“These actions were also implemented after taking into consideration the comments from the Selangor State Legal Advisory Chamber. In general, the degazetting is to complete the process that was pending in 2006. The Selangor government has taken the appropriate role to resolve matters that were delayed over 20 years ago,” he said in a statement.
Fadzil said the degazetting did not follow a public investigation process as approval took place before the amendments to Section 1, EAPN Selangor 1985 in 2011. – The Vibes, July 16, 2022
