by Angeline Loh
Aliran Monthly Vol 25 (2005): Issue 8

	The �Pearl� has become a discarded fish ball floating in a foul-smelling cesspool along with other solid waste. Angeline Loh

Something amusing but relevant to all Penangites came over the news bulletin one evening. My father and I were watching the evening�s Malay news when a phrase uttered by the newscaster reading a piece on the state of Penang�s environment made me prick up my ears. The item was titled �Menggilap Mutiara� (Polishing the Pearl). Apparently, Penang, once famed for its beautiful beaches and scenic, clean environment, has suffered so much neglect and abuse by the state government as well as its by own populace to have earned the title, �Pulau Pinang Darul Sampah� (Penang, Land of Rubbish)! It is that bad, and it serves no useful purpose for �patriotic� Penangites to get uptight and up-in-arms at this jibe as it is, unfortunately, true.

Showing pictures of Penang�s past beauty in a desperate attempt to attract local and foreign tourists certainly isn�t going to work. Not when those particular people are plunged into stark reality upon landing at the Bayan Lepas International Airport or upon alighting from the northbound inter-city train at Butterworth or upon arriving in the city on a long distance express bus.

Those pictures, aired by RTM that evening, showing Sungai Pinang reflecting the sky and surrounding terrestrial environment, so idyllic and peaceful, reminded me of what I had witnessed last year from the window of a public bus when it passed by that place. I would have taken a snapshot if I had my camera then. The irony of that scene was unforgettable.

A huge white banner had been hung across the bridge (over Sungai Pinang) proclaiming words to the effect of �keeping Penang clean�. Below it, through the grille could be seen the black oily waters of Sungai Pinang, with bits and pieces bobbing around, snaking its way to the now murky sea. The City Council must have realised the absurdity of it as the banner has since been removed. Good political thinking, but that doesn�t help clean up the environment in any way, apart from making the river more visible to the general public.

I�ve heard a number of Penangites smugly declare how proud they are of Penang state. Nothing wrong with that, except that it gets reasonably annoying, even to a Penangite like me when we seem to continue being arrogant about our own idiocy. We grandly declare, �We have the cleanest water in the country!�; yet, out of the tap flows yellow, mud-coloured water. You can get that in Selangor too - nothing unusual.

We used to have the cleanest water in the country, but that is history. Our water isn�t always dirty, that�s true, but realistically, we�re now finding water filters are necessary. So, should we remain on Cloud Nine and adopt the adage �See no sludge� when it�s already in and on our faces?

Then came jerebu

Like the 26 December 2004 tsunami shock Penangites experienced, the presence of �jerebu� (the smog) in Penang on Saturday, 13 August 2005, contradicted the smug remarks of Penangites who thought it would never happen to us. When the Klang Valley was smothered in jerebu and people from that vicinity tried to �escape jerebu� by running north, it prompted some northerners to smile, �Oh we don�t have that here.� Well, they had to eat their words, as on that very Saturday, we woke up with watery eyes, sore throats and low visibility. We then turned and pointed fingers at these �hapless� southerners, saying they�d brought it with them, and accused our neighbour, Indonesia of being the culprits.

Yet, we have not learned that we are the main cause of our own misery. In Penang, open burning seems to be freely accepted despite the fact that it has been made illegal. Companies and farmers in mainland states are fined or prosecuted by authorities for it, even though they may be only a small number.

The Penang government preserves its lackadaisical attitude towards the environment despite the Prime Minister�s remarks not so long ago about the dismal environment in Penang. Local government seems to have a very short memory of this embarrassment.

Now the �Hungry Ghost� Festival is here, the forerunner of the �Mooncake� Festival, and we are happy to indulge in open burning, not always on a small scale. It is understandable when custom and rituals are unavoidable, but can�t new ways of carrying out ancient rituals be devised to alleviate a problem. No, offence meant to believers of Taoism. There seems to be an absence of logic in Malaysian thinking: the inability to connect an action with its consequences. The irresponsibility of this tidak apa (couldn�t-care-less) attitude is the one thing that will prevent us from ever becoming a really developed nation. We only develop on the outside but remain prehistoric in our thinking, to our own detriment.

Kitar semula too difficult

Our supermarkets, and hypermarkets, are stockpiled with disposable packaging and unbreakable plastic containers for almost all sorts of products from deodorants to drinks. Having to consume these products, we stockpile them at home, and frequently make the clich�d comment, �Ayah, what to do with so many plastic bottles (or tins, cardboard boxes, magazines?� Then the well-intentioned council comes along and recommends kitar semula (recycling) advising one and all to sort out and discard their rubbish in the respective bins provided. Easier said than done.

First, there are a terribly limited number of recycling bins, particularly in Penang, placed too far away from residential or urban areas where recyclable rubbish is likely to be accumulated. So people don�t bother to load their cars with this rubbish and take it half a kilometre away to dispose of it. Some don�t even make a small effort to separate recyclable rubbish from other biodegradable rubbish; they simply throw everything into one garbage lot. There are others who take their own garbage and put it in front of other peoples� houses, to what end, one wonders. It is almost as if they don�t want to admit to generating any garbage themselves.

Second, in spite of the repeated advertising on kitar semula, the reception to these efforts has remained lukewarm. And now, even this campaign is rarely seen over television these days. The saying, �hangat-hangat tahi ayam� aptly describes the efforts of the authorities, as all enthusiasm for this project has gradually cooled.

So it all adds up and makes kitar semula a complete failure. The root cause of all this - the �tidak apa� attitude of both authorities and populace. So here, we Penangites live in complete contentment and in the bliss of wilful ignorance, thinking the world of ourselves, amidst the sludge, slime, garbage and smog that we generate and do nothing about. The �Pearl� has become a discarded fish ball floating in a foul-smelling cesspool along with other solid waste.

This is very sad indeed. It only reveals that we who aspire to take a place in the proud developed world have overlooked the pitfalls of our still underdeveloped thinking and closed-minded attitude to solving important global problems. We excuse ourselves on the basis that we Malaysians have our own way of doing things. But it does not hide the fact that we are contributing to the world�s environmental problems with our egotistically uncooperative attitude.

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