INCREASINGLY, we witness how our waterways, air quality and food processing, including farm produce, are manifesting a runaway, out of control, and corrupt value system in Malaysia.
Toxic waste is dumped in our rivers and drains. Some factories emit toxic and pungent gases in the silent nights.
Food manufacturers were found with rodents and roaches as permanent residents, and even rusting and filthy machinery and storage.
Farm operators have been accused of using dangerous amounts of pesticides or steroid-laced feed just so they can have every vegetable, fruit and chicken sold.
Even premises that get raided and fined or shut down are back to their bad ways all over again.
The laws don’t bite. The conscience is dead. Making money at any cost has become a widespread measure of success.
Malaysians have to be blamed for allowing themselves to be poisoned and have their health compromised in the long run.
The power of the consumer is missing in the country. The power of local residents is lost forever.
Unless and until consumers and local residents rise up, protest vehemently, and forcefully blacklist all the crooks by boycotting such corrupt businesses, we are doomed to suffer from illness, sickness, poor health and a miserable future for our young ones too.
Media can play a pivotal role here. So too the relevant ministries.
Unless and until local communities unite and fight our air, water and food polluters, we cannot change this dangerous equation.
And for every exposé, the relevant guardians of the nation’s air, water and food safety must be punished too for any evidence of negligence.
Air, water and food polluters are enemies of the state. Their licences should be withdrawn and their assets frozen. Owners should be sent to prison while shareholders – irrespective of who they are – should be exposed without fear, favour or for wanting to be politically correct.
If the law is the impediment, then get Parliament to amend with speed. Otherwise, hold our cabinet members and lawmakers equally guilty of compromise.
Are two decades of brazen, growing and indifferent flouting of the law not enough to make such amendments?
Indeed, if our air, water and food cannot be protected, what nation building, patriotism, and loyalty to the king and country are we preaching? – The Vibes, April 7, 2022
J. D. Lovrenciear is a reader of The Vibes
