Piasau Camp

suppadmin | March 17, 2014

Dato' Sebastian Ting — Dato’ Sebastian Ting

Speech of Chairman at 2nd Annual General Meeting of Piasau Camp Miri Nature Park Society on 15th March 2014 at 3pm at Piasau Camp.

Good afternoon. Encik Musa Mubah Deputy Chairman, Mr Andy Chia, Secretary, Fellow Committee Members, Members, friends, children and my media friends

How are you all? On behalf of my Committee I would like to extend a very warm welcome to you all for coming to attend the first Annual General Meeting of PCMNPS .. Your coming here means a lot to us, as your Committee Members.

Thank you again.

Before I proceed further, may I request that we all be up standing and stand for a minute of silence in memory of our dear friend and strong supporter of our cause and who had participated in our monthly Walk in the Park, the late Madam Molly Sim. She was the First Lady engineer of Sarawak Shell Bhd, and was called to be with The Lord on the 2nd March 2014.. We will miss her and will always remember her. We pray for her soul and may she rest in eternal peace … Please stand and observe A minute of silence .. Please..

Thank you.

The year 2013 was full of wonderful and beautiful memories and activities, for PCMNPS, the excitement, anxiety, frustration anger and despair and of course happiness and fantastic fellowship and excellent friendship.

As this is the first AGM of PCMNPS I would like to report the activities before the registration of PCMNPS and thereafter its registration..

The date of registration of PCMNPS was on the 23rd October 2013

Before the registration of PCMNPS.

Couple of years ago, few close friends causally mentioned that ” Piasau Camp including the sea was a Beautiful area.. We must do something to keep Piasau Camp as a green area”.. This conversation took place when it was then speculated that Shell might want to give up or surrender the use of the land in Piasau Camp.. It was just a conversation then. A thought and perhaps a dream. Looking back, this might be the small seed planted into our hearts and minds then and subsequently grew into fruition in 2013 and 2014.

In late 2011 the same close friends met again and the discussion was more serious and It was a question on how to start.

Few months later in 2012, it must be fate that led me to meet Mr Musa, Chairman of Malaysian Nature Society Miri Branch, who invited me to attend a Talk or Seminar on Oriental Pied Hornbills found in Piasau Camp in May 2012 organized by Malaysian Nature Society Miri Branch.. I attended and was indeed very impressed with Mr Musa’s presentation and we agreed to discuss further..

A dinner discussion group comprising of Musa, Andy Chia, Karambir Singh, Richard Teo, Dr Roland Mattu and myself was organized at Western Palace, Grand Palace hotel..

Few more meetings followed and it was decided that a Walk in the Park at Piasau Camp be organized to create an awareness to the public on what we had inside Piasau Camp, the Beautiful Oriental Pied Hornbills and so many other birds and insects..

It was decided that a sub committee known as Piasau Camp Hornbill Park Committee be formed under the Malaysian Nature Society Miri Branch, which was led and still leads by Mr Musa to organize A Walk in the Park.

The first Walk was held on the 5th January 2013 at 4.30pm.. We assembled at4pm near Tenby International School..

The primary objective of Hornbill Walk or Walk in the Park was to create an awareness and drum up support urging the government, Petronas and Sarawak Shell to gazette Piasau Camp as nature or green park for the preservation, conservation and improvement of Piasau Camp for the people, our children our future generations and residents of Miri..

Two hundred green T shirts with the words ” Hornbill Park, Miri. Save Piasau Oriental Pied Hornbill Malaysian Nature Society Miri”. were printed and to be given to people who came and joined the First Walk.. We thought 200 T shirts should be adequate but there were 700 people who attended. The support was really overwhelming and indeed we were pleasantly surprised as the publicity of this first Walk was through FB, Internet, SMS and other social media.. We thought the publicity was not enough.. We pledged to give the same T short to those who did not receive the T shirt after reprinting. This was done.

Following the huge success of the 1st Walk in the Park it was decided that perhaps we should continue to organize this walk on regular monthly basis.. However this was not possible due to various unforeseen circumstances.

The 2nd Walk in the Park was on 6th April 2013.

The 3rd Walk in the Park was on the 19th May 2013.

4th Walk in the Park on August 2013

Sadly one of our beautiful hornbills, Faridah was caught by three poachers on September 23rd 2013. There was anxiety and frustration then looking for the missing Faridah… These feelings turned into anger for some of us when She was found death in a bulk bin at Jalan Datuk Edward Jeli on September 26th 2013..

Her death was widely publicized and was given front page coverage in all newspapers and in memory of Faridah’s death a gathering was held on September 29th 2013 at Piasau Camp.

Three persons were arrested in connection with the death of Faridah and upon conviction of one person we applied to Court to release the carcass of Faridah with the view to preserve Faridah so that she, being an icon, would be available for the public to see after the Piasau Camp had been gazetted as Nature Reserve Green Park and improvement being made thereto.

The death of Faridah was not in vain as her death might have helped accelerated the approval process to gazette the Piasau Camp as Nature Reserve Green Park.

5th Walk in the Park on 19th October 2013

6th Walk in the Park on 16th November 2013

7th Walk in the Park on 14th December 2013 where a small gathering and cake cutting was held to mark the end of the year at the quarters where Dave and Mairead stayed as they would have to move out at the end of December 2013. A beautiful memory. Thank you Dave and Mairead for all your help ..

8th Walk in the Park ( 1st for 2014) was on 18th January 2014. Joined by National President of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Professor Dr Maketab Mohamad who assured to give us all the support available in helping us to make this nature reserve a successful joint project of the government Petronas Sarawak Shell, Malaysian Nature Society and Miri community.

During this 8th Walk the preserved Faridah was returned to Mr Musa Chairman, Malaysian Nature Society Miri Branch and once the Piasau Camp nature reserve is gazetted and established, It is hoped that Faridah will be displayed for public viewing.

9th Walk in the Park on 15th February 2014. Despite the rain and other major high impact functions including inaugural Country Music Festival, many came. Juliet and Jimmy were spotted and they came twice at the beginning and end of the Walk. This was the first rain in all our 8 Walk and also including the gathering in memory of Faridah

10th Walk in the Park is today 15th March 2014

Registration of PCMNPS

In August 2013 The Committee deliberated and decided that we should formerly register Piasau Camp Miri Nature Park Society and on behalf of the Society I would like to say a Special Thank you to Mr Karambir Singh, our Treasurer, who prepared the first draft constitution of our Society for discussion and decision. With the inputs from all the committee members, the final draft of our Constitution was sent to ROS Miri branch for approval.

It was with amazing speed that We received the approval with the original certificate of registration dated 23rd October 2013

Thank you Mr Karambir.

The present Committee Members were elected at the 1st General Meeting held on the 16th November 2013.

Also on behalf of PCMNPS. I would like to say Thank You to Mr Musa, our Deputy Chairman, as Malaysian Nature Society Chairman Miri Branch and Malaysian Nature Society KL for allowing us, the then committee to be parked under MNS for ten months thereabout… Thank you Mr Musa..

Announcements.

There were few important and wonderful announcements which I would like to refer to regarding Piasau Camp. There were as follows.

1) The first official good news came when we read in the newspaper that during the DUN sitting in May 2014, YB Tan Sri Adenan Satem, the then Minister of Special Functions in the Chief Minister Office and now our YAB Chief Minister of Sarawak that the government would be looking into, amongst others, to gazette and preserve of Piasau Camp as a Nature Reserve Green Park.

(2) In November the press reported that Datu Sudarsono the Permanent Secretary to the Minister of Resources and Planning also mentioned that the Sarawak Government had approved to gazette the area in Piasau Camp as a Nature Reserve Green Park.

2) On November 3rd 2013 YB Datuk Len Latiff , the Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s office, visited the Piasau Park and announced that the then CM YAB Pehin Sri Abdul Taib ( now our TYT) agreed to gazette Piasau Camp as the Nature Reserve Green Park and the target date was by the end of December 2013. We heard that the size of this land was mentioned to be 170 acres…

3) During the Shell Press night in Kuching 2013, Sarawak Shell Bhd Chairman and Managing Director Mr Ian Lo announced and confirmed that Sarawak Government had agreed to the proposal that Piasau Camp be gazetted as a Nature Reserve Green Park and that Petronas and Shell would allocate RM10 million for this purpose.

I learned from our Society Publicity officer Madam Cecilia that she had just conducted an interview with Datuk Len Latiff who reiterated that Sarawak Government had taken concrete steps to gazette the Piasau Camp as Nature Reserve Green Park and in fact the earth breaking ceremony would be soon, details of which would be made known once the date is confirmed. So my dear Mirians and friends our Nature Reserve Green Park dream would soon be a reality. It is only the beginning as more things have been planned on how to improve this beautiful land here

For now, on behalf of al the committee members and members and the people of Miri I would like to say Thank you to the following people:

(1) The then CM Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud,( now TYT)

(2) Our new Chief Minister of Sarawak, YAB Tan Sri Adenan Satem,

(3) Sarawak Government and the team of senior government officers working on this.

(4) Datuk Len Latiff,

(5) Datu Wee Yaw Hin, Senior Vice President of Exploration and Production and his team in Petronas,

(6) Mr Iain Lo and his team in Sarawak Shell Bhd

(7) My Committee members and those who had volunteered and contributed their time and energy to be with us and helped us in our dream of getting this Piasau Camp gazetted as a permanent Nature Reserve Green Park.

(8) The public who had been giving us the strong support in our monthly Walk, including their lovely children.. We sincerely hope you all had enjoyed the walk just as much as we did.

(9) Our dear media friends, in particular, Cecilia of Borneo Post, who is also our Publicity Officer, Rick Wong and Vicky Chang of See Hua Newspaper Lo Kiun Sin of Sin Chew newspaper Adrian Tang of United Daily and TV1 crew for their fantastic coverage for all our Walks and activities..

In conclusion, ..

TOGETHER LET US TURN THIS DREAM INTO REALITY ….

TOGETHER LET US MAKE PIASAU CAMP NATURE RESERVE GREEN PARK A GREAT SUCCESS and THE BEST PARK IN SARAWAK and Perhaps THE BEST IN MALAYSIA IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

BECAUSE WE LOVE THIS PLACE OF OURS…

Thank you all for coming and your strong support.

May God Bless us and our loved ones always.

Dated 15th March 2014.
Dato’ Sebastian Ting
Chairman
Piasau Camp Miri Nature Park Society.