COMMENT | Will Selangor Harapan save a precious forest?

COMMENT | When you want to see real-life tapirs, gibbons, hornbills and slow loris, you usually have to go on rather expensive tours to Taman Negara, Pahang or the wilds of Sabah and Sarawak. What if these can all be found in a small forest right in the Klang Valley? On the doorstep of Shah Alam?

But how will you feel if someone tells you that the authorities plan to chop down most of this natural haven? Even worse, what if this was happening under a Pakatan Harapan state government that claims to “protect” the environment?

This little place, called the Shah Alam Community Forest or SACF, is just 162 hectares but it's packed with lots of wildlife. I wrote before about how this shakes my faith in Harapan and raises doubts about whether certain “donations” may have influenced decisions...