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YOURSAY | E-waste - we should not be world’s dumping ground

This article is 2 years old

YOURSAY | ‘There is no use having a world-class LRT if our backyard is a junkyard.’

E-waste smuggled into the country leaves a trail of pollution

Ministry promises crackdown on illegal e-waste recycling plants

Apanama is Back: No e-waste should be dumped in Malaysia at all. We need to ban them completely.

Malaysia should not be a dumping ground for any waste from outside this country. We need to move towards a clean and healthy environment.

Already, the waste generated within the country is not being treated properly by some of the industry players. We could further damage the environment and people's health with such imported waste.

Koel: Hello Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, where are you and what are you doing to stop this immediately?

Keep Malaysia safe from pollution. From open burning, garbage dumping, destruction of swamplands, and destruction of the fishing industry – the authorities have all failed us.

The state governments of Penang, Selangor and Johor need to be held up and shamed publicly for this madness that is putting Malaysians in danger.

The minister, state governments and the Department of Environment (DOE) need to be shadowed on this issue. Their resignations would be on the table in decent societies. Apparently, decency is in short supply in such circles in Malaysia.

As for Environment and Water Ministry chief secretary Zaini Ujang, good response. It’s good to see a constructive approach instead of a police report against Malaysiakini.

I look forward to actions against these errant operators.

Headhunter: This is not something new. And where are those people entrusted with enforcement? Are the Royal Malaysian Customs Department turning a blind eye?

It's time to come up with heavy fines and lengthy jail sentences for these illegal importers. We are importing someone else's rubbish that harms our environment and risks the health of our people. It's a sacrilege and should not be tolerated.

AnotherKomentar: A few years ago, it was plastic waste from Australia that was being dumped in illegal factories in Selangor. Now, more toxic e-waste is finding its way through our border to pollute our land.

Where is the environment and water minister, who is from PAS? Which ministers allowed rampant breaches of Malaysian customs and border control? Who are these syndicates who brought in these toxic wastes, and who are they in cahoots with?

NoobMaster69: If the former minister of energy, science, technology, environment and climate change Yeo Bee Yin is around, I doubt that it will happen so rampantly.

Remember when she was the minister, tons and tons of waste were sent back to their original countries?

What has the current minister of environment and water done to tackle these issues? I believe the results show themselves.

Malaysia under Perikatan Nasional/BN is once again the dumping ground. As long as their cronies earn big bucks, there is no stopping BN/PN from making Malaysia the biggest rubbish bin in the world!

Please vote for a responsible government. If we vote for a government that fails to take care of our environment, our future generation will suffer. Imagine a land so polluted that our crops wouldn’t grow and our livestock had nothing to feed on.

That is why Umno had to take back power by hook or by crook because their source of income is dependent on illegal activities, such as making Malaysia a dumping ground.

Although when Yeo did it, everyone thought it was mundane stuff, it was these little things that the Pakatan Harapan minister did that made Malaysia a better place.

There is no use having a world-class LRT if our backyard is a junkyard. Please, voters, wise up this 15th general election. Can we endure another five years of this nonsense from BN?

OrangeJaguar9341: Great investigative reporting by Malaysiakini. Enough with the excuses from the authorities. The fact that these highly toxic, illegal activities have been operating for years with impunity is staggering.

It is a reasonable assumption that "e-waste syndicates are working hand-in-glove with some within the enforcement bodies".

Will The Royal Malaysia Police and the MACC act?

Frans Rozario: Are we becoming the sewer of the world? Well, it's happening in our waters.

We have allowed a foreign manufacturer to dump its toxic waste in our backyard, we have seen waste plastic being dumped on us, and now this. This is the price we pay for allowing corruption at the highest levels.

When the rakyat manage to bring these people to task, they oust the government in ways more corrupt than anything - they can even undermine the wishes of the rakyat, then use the corrupt institutions of power to free these corrupted leaders, and now, even though one of them is "locked up" by the courts, with the power of the corrupt in high places, he seems freer then ordinary men.

They are now in the process of freeing him completely and given Malaysia today, it can be done because the entire system is corrupted.

Wong Lu Shin: Thank you, Zaini for pledging to investigate this matter.

I hope that Malaysiakini can carry out a follow-up report in six months' time to let us know whether concrete action has indeed been taken.


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