Bauxite Mining by guillaume @flickr
Push has finally come to shove in Malaysia's Pahang state, where the environmental crisis sparked by illegal bauxite mining in the state capital of Kuantan has prompted Najib Razak's government to announce a moratorium on the entire industry. The move -- currently slated to last three months but potentially to be extended indefinitely -- is a radical but necessary response to the rampant pollution that has accompanied breakneck growth in production from Pahang's mines over the past year. While the government puts a pause on bauxite mining, Malaysia also has a prime opportunity to set a new regional standard for countering environmental crime. For all the damage that has been done, a resolute official response to Kuantan could set a positive example for all of ASEAN to follow.
By giving itself at least a three-month window to implement an effective regulatory and policing framework, Malaysia now has the opportunity to encourage the development of sustainable industry, crack down on illegal miners and repair some of the damage done. Unfortunately for those on the ground, it may be many months before their rivers, forests and air are no longer poisoned. From rivers that have turned red from residue wash off to radioactive dust unfit for breathing, conditions in Kuantan have gotten so bad that Malaysia's health minister advised residents to avoid direct contact with river water -- even after it has been boiled. The toxic red mud produced by the bauxite mines contains naturally radioactive minerals like arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury and nickel. The constant, poorly controlled mining of bauxite and trucking to Kuantan port has put the area's entire population at risk.
While the Malaysian government's temporary ban on bauxite mining should allow the worst of the impact from mining-related pollution in Pahang to subside, national officials have also become more proactive about responding to the pressing needs of the local population. This new attention, as the government's Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin frankly stated, comes "better late than never." Speaking to reporters on Monday, Khairy called for the three-month freeze to be extended to allow time for a "holistic solution" to be developed. Another encouraging response came from Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who promised an indefinite extension of the moratorium if the industry doesn't get its act together. In addition to requiring all bauxite stockpiles to be moved to a central location, new permit approvals have been frozen and new rules would be applied to existing permits.
Statements like these point to better mining policy in the months to come, but many environmental activists are pushing for bolder action. The head of Protection of Natural Heritage of Malaysia (PEKA) has called for a more serious state response, saying: "Nobody wants to go to Pahang anymore because the damage done by bauxite miners in Kuantan is beyond repair." The booming bauxite trade in Pahang is a very recent development, taking off only after Indonesia suspended its own ore shipments to China to promote domestic production. Malaysia on its own accounted for over 40 percent of China's 49 million tons of bauxite imports across January to November last year, and Malaysian bauxite imports to China jumped 700 percent when compared with 2014. At the end of the day, the bauxite mining crisis that has made life so arduous for the residents of Pahang is the result of China's seemingly insatiable - at least until recently -- thirst for commodities.
While the moratorium is a step in the right direction, Kuala Lumpur also needs to remain committed to prosecuting both illegal miners and the corrupt officials responsible for shielding them. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has already brought up charges against four officials accused of accepting bribes to allow unauthorized bauxite trucking, conducting a sting that turned up a large pile of cash hidden in a washing machine. In the course of its operation, the MACC found that there were more than 200 illegal miners operating in Pahang. Opposition lawmakers in Malaysia also allege that the national and local governments were deprived of over 180 million Malaysian ringgit ($41 million) by the customs department's failure to impose export duties.
As I wrote back in August, the ASEAN countries as a whole need to make prosecuting environmental crime a priority. In this part of the world, after all, environmental degradation in any one country can hardly be expected to stop at the border. Indonesia's forest fires, prompted by slash and burn deforestation, unleashed clouds of haze which not only caused 500,000 cases of respiratory infections but also shut down schools in both Singapore and Malaysia. Those fires cost Indonesia's government over $30 billion and had at least 43 million people inhaling toxic fumes for months on end. Writing in the Jakarta Globe, Erik Meijaard put the challenge to the region's governments simply: "If the law says burning is illegal, prosecute the perpetrators -- how hard is that?"
The ASEAN nations took a major step forward when they classified the trafficking of wildlife and timber on the community's list of "regional priority transnational crime threats," accompanied by a call for a stronger response on the part of country-level law enforcement and criminal justice systems. This sector of transnational crime is big business in the region, with the illegal timber trader worth $3.5 billion in 2010, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
In prosecuting the crooked Pahang state officials, Malaysia now has an opportunity to set a new standard for official accountability. Though Malaysia handed off its year-long role presiding over ASEAN at the end of 2015, the government's bauxite mining decision can still set an important precedent for the entire region. If it makes the most of this opportunity, Malaysia could set a powerful example for other ASEAN states dealing with their own environmental crises. It could also help spearhead efforts to coordinate multilaterally between the ASEAN states on issues of the environment -- which the body has yet to convincingly address head-on.