The Malaysian Nature Society welcomes the call from our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to be more sensitive towards the environment and its cleanliness. MNS strongly agrees with his comments on waste disposal and calls all relevant authorities and sectors to step up measures to combat this ugly habit. Nevertheless, as stated by Dr. Mahathir, cleanliness is everyone's job and not just the job or duty of the district municipal and the government. It is indeed a sad fact that as our country strives to be the best in everything, whether it is sports or development or manufacturing, simple values like cleanliness are soon disappearing.

It is very true that if everyone were to dispose of his or her garbage without any due consideration of the surrounding environment, we would eventually live in rubbish dumps. Accumulated rubbish is not only unsightly, it smells, harbors diseases, encourages pests and tarnishes the image of the tourism industry of our country. Rubbish and other wastes pollute the groundwater with toxic chemicals and kill the animals that live in the area. Countless turtles for example have died due to eating plastic bags thinking they were jellyfish. The leatherback turtle, once the proud mascot of the tourism industry, is now on the brink of extinction due to several reasons including solid waste pollution. The turtle is only one out of several hundred animals in the country, directly affected by solid wastes.

There are several measures that could be taken up by both the local authorities as well as the general public in order to combat this menace. The local authorities should provide sufficient garbage bins around areas frequented by the public. These bins will also have to be large enough to be vandalism proof. State governments should also look into the possibility of stepping up education programs through its state. People will only love what they know and conserve what they have been taught. Thus adequate education drives is a necessity. Other that these, enforcement too would have to be stepped up in order to punish offenders and errant picnickers. The recent cleanup day organized by the Society throughout the country in conjunction with Earth Day 2000, saw more than 100 bags of rubbish in one stretch of the Kanching waterfalls itself.

Apart from all these the key role should be played by the public themselves. MNS would strongly encourage residents and village associations as well as hotels and resorts situated near beaches, rivers, parks etc to be more actively involved in environment preservation. Together, local authority and residents associations as well as hotels and resorts, the cleanliness of a certain area will definitely be well kept. There are several resident associations that do work hand in hand with the government to keep their area clean. These examples should also be followed through out the country and in every state.

If we as Malaysians do not stop our careless attitude of throwing rubbish, our beautiful country and all the magnificent places and animals that live in them will soon be destroyed. We often say 'Malaysia Boleh' for a lot of accomplishments, let us begin to say 'Malaysia Boleh' when it comes to cleaning our nation.

Dato' Dr. Salleh Mohd Nor
Kuala Lumpur, 6 June, 2000