UGLY MALAYSIAN??

Thursday, 24-Oct-2002 7:09 AM
UGLY MALAYSIANS? South-South Investments Abused
Edited by Jomo K.S.
Published by the Institute for Black Research Durban, 2002
TENAGA KHEMAS SDN BHD
Tenaga Khemas is chaired by Dato' Kanagalingam Velupillai (V.K. Lingam) and it is recorded as a dormant company in Malaysia. Towards the end of 1995, the company secured a 87,554 ha concession in the Berbice river region of Guyana. Tenaga Khemas owns 85% and 80% of two other companies operating in Guyana, UNAMCO and Case Timbers respectively.
UNAMCO has been logging a 96,000 ha concession since 1991, and has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding for an Exploratory Lease of 345,000 ha.
Case Timbers has owned a 62,000 ha concession since 1993, and is scheduled to obtain an Exploratory Lease of 205,000 ha contiguous with its existing concession and the concession held by UNAMCO. On 21 July 1997, Case Timbers signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government for the construction of a US$40 million plywood plant. The plant, which is estimated to produce 7,000 cu m of plywood per month is expected to be operational by the end of 1998.
Velupillai Kanagalingam, the head of Tenaga Khemas, has openly admitted that he holds an interest in both Case Timbers and UNAMCO for Berjaya Sdn Bhd. Both Case and UNAMCO are working jointly with Berjaya in existing concessions in Guyana.
While inspecting a logging road in November 1997, an officer of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) discovered that UNAMCO had been logging its concession without permission. Less than a week after the discovery of this illegal logging, the President of Guyana held a ceremony to open the main logging road in the concession, despite the fact that the EIA on the road had been rejected as inadequate by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EIA for the road had still not been approved in 1998. It was later confirmed that UNAMCO had cut at least 15,000 trees illegally and was operating without approval for its Environemntal Impact Assessment for its logging concession. This is also illegal in Guyana. The company was fined a paltry US$7142 by a special government committee established to investigate the situation. The estimated value of the illegally felled trees is US$6.75 million. UNAMCO owes the government US$37,142 in outstanding acreage fees on other concessions since the beginning of 1997. UNAMCO claims that it has not made a Guyana cent from its operations in Guyana for the past three years.
The illegal logging activity took place either in UNAMCO's Timber Sales Agreement consession or in the controversial Exploratory Lease issued recently to the company by the Government. There are conflicting reports in both media and from the Government concerning exactly where the illegal activity took place. Since the fine was announced, UNAMCO has aggressively tried to have the Guyana Forestry Commission removed from any further dealings in the matter. In a letter to the President of Guyana, UNAMCO's director described relations between them and the company and the GFC as 'critical'. He urged the president to intervene directly and 'decisively' to resolve the dispute. As a result, the UNAMCO files were taken out of the GFC's hands.
As stated in an editorial in the Guyanaese newspaper, the Starbroek News in February 1998, "The intervention by President Janet Jagan effectively took the issue out of the ambit of the GFC and the Minister responsible for forestry. It sent a signal that big forestry operators could bypass essential requirements set out by the GFC by appealing directly to the head of government. It thereby undermines the authority of the GFC which has sweeping and onerous obligations in acting as conservator of forests and ensuring that operators abide by the tenants of good forestry practice." The GFC is weak and understaffed as it is, if it has to constantly worry about logging companies undermining its authority by running to the President, it will never have the credibility or authority needed to ensure that logging operations are conducted sustainably.
According to the Amerindian People's Association, Guyana's primary indigenous organisation, "The recent case of the UNAMCO highlights the inadequacy of the GFC to monitor logging operations. If this situation has been taking place with UNAMCO and has only now been found out, how many other irregular activities are taking place in other concessions throughout Guyana? These concessions were granted without Amerindian
participation, without regard for Amerindian land and other rights and as illustrated in this case, these companies are abusing the forest on which many Amerindians depend on their basic livelihood. The Wapisiana people in Region 9 have previously expressed concerns about an Exploratory Lease allocated to Malaysian company, Kwitaro, that includes their ancestral lands. In light of these events, the APA once again calls upon the Government to halt logging operations, until the rights of Amerindians to own and control their ancestral territories and forest resources are fully recognised in accordance with international law.