I am totally shocked and baffled with the news that Tasik Kenyir has been officially declared a Duty Free Zone(DFZ) as reported in “Kenyir is now a DFZ” (The Star, Sept 30, 2010). What is even baffling is the Finance Ministry has already officially endorsed this new status on Sept 21 as indicated by the Terengganu Menteri Besar.
After all the hue and cry over the closure of nine dive sites on the tropical islands of Tioman and Redang until the end of October (The Star, July 22, 2010), it was supposed to be a wake-up call for all stakeholders to play their part in an attempt to relieve stress on the fragile marine ecosystems in the coast of Terengganu. These popular dive sites in the South China Sea was hit by coral bleaching and the closure would give the coral a chance to regenerate and remove stress caused by tourism-related activities such as scuba diving and snorkeling.
But now, Kenyir, another popular eco-tourism site is being transformed into a DFZ. Why must an eco-tourism site that is meant to attract responsible eco-tourist be transformed into a mass tourism destination by making it a DFZ? It make no business and environmental sense to destroy the eco-system of Tasik Kenyir by transforming the destination with duty-free complex, shophouses, condominiums and Custom Department complex. Kenyir indeed has rich eco-system and bio-diversity with habitat to more than 8,000 species of flowers, 2,500 species of plants and trees as well as more than 300 species of freshwater fish. Carrying out an environmental impact assessment is not the easy solution for a project of this nature to be imported into a fragile environment like Kenyir.
When will Malaysia ever learn their lesson? In the recently presented Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), the tourism lab presentation highlighted the recognition and preservation of the bio-diversity in West and East Malaysia. And out of the blue, this totally contradictory plan is announced to transform an eco-destination to become shopping paradise. If this is part of the blueprint of the ETP in moving the country to achieve a high income nation by 2020, then sadly I am very disappointed with this new development.
Development of mega-resorts, hotels, condominiums, shopping malls and other duty-free complex in natural areas in the name of green tourism, eco-tourism or as a catalyst to attract mass tourist is indeed green-washing! Such mammoth artificially landscaped projects tend to irretrievably wipe out the flora and fauna and sometimes even totally vanishing the entire eco-system of Kenyir.
Malaysia is blessed with breathtaking islands along with white sandy beaches and clear waters, which generates significant tourism receipt for the nation. Tourism growth in Malaysia has been assisted, to an extent, by the abundant and rich coral reefs and shallow tropical marine resources in this region. By turning Kenyir into DFZ will result in the destination busting its carrying capacity and limit of acceptable change. Hence, it the long term, the largest man-made lake in South-East Asia will just remain in our memories with no chance for our future generations to enjoy the tranquility of this beautiful lake destination. The environment is the resource base for tourism; without protection, the natural attraction that brought the tourist to Kenyir in the first place will be lost.
Finally, I would like to urge the Terengganu State Government and the Finance Ministry to re-look into this idea of turning Kenyir into DFZ. Already, there are increased numbers' of visitors (eco-tourist) to almost all the marine park islands in Malaysia, as a result of increased promotion and green-washing done by various parties in the pretext of generating economic revenue. When demand rises, further development implemented in the areas that were previously untouched could cause extensive damage. Once destinations become popular, there is often no way to control development activities.
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