The Chief Minister\u2019s current fight against illegal logging in Sarawak should be given credit and all parties should be supportive of it, not only to end corruption, but also to stop those who are thinking only of making money to strip the state of its natural resources.<\/p>\n
It was recently announced that Sarawak will impose heavier penalties against illegal loggers once an amendment to the Forestry Ordinance is passed in the coming State Legislative Assembly sitting.<\/p>\n
Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem said the amendment would increase the penalty, including a higher compound. Further details would be furnished during the tabling of the amendment.<\/p>\n
“Under the new amendment, those caught in possession of illegally fell logs must explain how they had obtained the log,” he told reporters at a news conference in Kuching recently.<\/p>\n
Under the present Forest Ordinance, the maximum penalty was only RM200 compound for every tonne of timber seized and no imprisonment was provided for.<\/p>\n
The burden of proof would be solely in the hands of the suspects in possession of illegal logs to prove that they were not involved in such activities to avoid further legal action.<\/p>\n
It has also been reported that the CM has earlier attended a closed-door dialogue with enforcement officers from the Sarawak Forest Department, during which he warned Sarawak Forest Department and Sarawak Forestry Corporation staff who cooperated with illegal syndicates will face severe disciplinary action.<\/p>\n
These staff would also be referred to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for further action.<\/p>\n
The Chief Minister also added that the fight against illegal logging had some degree of success but more are needed to be done \u2013 especially assistance from members of the public in the form of information to the relevant authorities.<\/p>\n
In a related development, the six biggest timber consortium in Sarawak have given the Chief Minister their pledge to help stop corrupt practices and illegal logging in the state.<\/p>\n
During a Chinese New Year gathering organised by the Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) in Miri, the Chief Minister added that the pledge would positively assist in his plan of eradicating corruption in the timber industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chief Minister\u2019s current fight against illegal logging in Sarawak should be given credit and all parties should be supportive of it, not only to end corruption, but also to stop those who are thinking only of making money to strip the state of its natural resources. It was recently announced that Sarawak will impose heavier penalties against illegal loggers once an amendment to the Forestry Ordinance is passed in the coming State Legislative Assembly sitting. Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem said the amendment would increase the penalty,Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5858,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions\/5858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}