Great Expectations

Posted by AsiaViews | Nov 27, 2017 | 0 |

The New Straits Times

Nov 19, 2017
GREAT expectations may just be the phrase to describe the hope of many Malaysians for the proposed Environmental Protection Bill. What with all the disasters such as landslides that have been happening in Penang, and, elsewhere, too. Are we being too hopeful? Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has certainly raised our expectations. He told the New Sunday Times that the new law would have more bite than it did under the Environmental Quality Act 1974. Take the case of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) guidelines, which were at the center of the Penang landslide controversy. Under the new regime, the Department of Environment’s (DoE) EIA guidelines will molt from being recommendatory to mandatory. A giant leap, one must admit. But here is the catch. Malaysia’s Federal Constitution gives the states substantial powers over land use and natural resources management. The federal-state relationship is a complicated relationship, even without adding the complex environmental regime to the picture. It can, at times, confound and confuse. We saw this in full play in the Tanjung Bungah tragedy, leaving many laymen wondering about the clout of DoE. Many asked: can Penang overrule DoE’s advice? It certainly can under the Federal Constitution. So, how is this new bill going to circumvent this? We do not want to put the cart before the horse, but this may not happen unless the states relinquish control to the federal authorities. Only states which love the environment and the future generation will do this. This is a moral bite, at best.

We do not want to take away the credit due to the ministry and its agencies to make the law march with the times, but they have other challenges to face as well. A huge challenge is the implementation and enforcement of the regulatory regime itself. Laws upon rules upon administrative guidelines to be implemented by multiple government agencies do not make enforcement any easier. The new law must ensure that there is little overlap, and, no cracks through which environmental issues will fall and disappear. Lawyers say we have an impressive set of environmental laws, but it is in their enforcement that we lose some stars. One way to test this view of the lawyers is to reach out for the law reports. Compared with cases reported on other matters, law reports on environmental cases are sparse, and, bound in thin volumes. Enforcers and interested parties have very little guidance in terms of cases as precedents.

Civil society and environmentalists may also want to see changes in the law to enable public-spirited litigants to institute actions without being burdened with the strict rules of “locus standi”. Existing decisions do not help us on this issue as the courts have been rather inconsistent, and, restrictive, too. Public-spirited people must be encouraged to litigate, and, the only way to do this is for the new law to define the rule of legal standing in a generous way. This is one of the great expectations.

(https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/leaders/2017/11/304816/great-expectations)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Great Expectations