By RUBEN SARIO
KOTA KINABALU: Work on the controversial RM4.5mil clubhouse project on Pulau Sipadan has stopped for now.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman told this to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during a 20-minute meeting at Parliament House in Kuala Lumpur.
“The Prime Minister was happy and had accepted my explanation,” Musa said in a statement read out by the chief minister’s department press secretary Afeiza Khan, here yesterday
In the six-paragraph statement, Musa said he explained the whole situation at Sipadan to Abdullah and also showed him a comprehensive report on the status of development on the island.
“I told him since my directive on May 24 to suspend the contract and stop mobilisation works, all physical works had stopped on Sipadan,” the statement said.
The chief minister’s meeting with the Prime Minister came after Abdullah, in his dinner speech at the Malaysian Professional Centre on Wednesday night, expressed his anger at Musa for proceeding with the Sipadan project despite objections.
Abdullah had said: “I was very angry with Musa. I told him not to build it. I said so many corals are dying and he promised that he would look into the project.”
He also said he was upset with the general quality of environment in the country, and that Malaysians should learn to appreciate the environment, as it was a gift from God.
Musa had initially ordered the clubhouse construction stopped after a barge laden with building materials scraped a coral patch on May 14, but later allowed the project to continue on condition environmentally friendly materials were used.
The barge had damaged 324.94 sq m of coral reefs at the landing point north of Sipadan, and a clean-up order was issued.
But subsequent photos showed steel bars and other construction materials on the seabed.
Musa said that a joint committee on the management and monitoring of Sipadan, chaired by Tan Sri Samsuddin Osman, had met in June this year.
He said all development plans for Sipadan must be approved by the state Cabinet prior to implementation and must conform to the recommendations of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
The state cabinet last month also ordered a stop to the rest-house and restaurant project located about 3,000m above sea level at Sayat Sayat along the summit trail on Mount Kinabalu, which is Malaysia’s first World Heritage site.
Work on the project stopped after it had been abandoned for several months. Environmental groups had voiced their anger over blasting on the mountain for constructing the building’s foundation.
Two weeks ago, environmentalists were upset over the Sabah government’s decision to proceed with logging at the 236,825ha Ulu Segama and Malua forest reserves, which would be bequeathed as Malaysia’s biodiversity gift to the world by the end of next year.
Source: The Star
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