Green SURF Unable To Pass Memo to Prime Minister – Press Release

KOTA KINABALU (18th July 2010): After half a year of trying to personally meet with the Prime Minister, environmental groups today turned up at an event he attended here to pass him a memo on the proposed coal-fired power plant.
Despite the best efforts of Green SURF (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future), they were stopped by officials from handing Datuk Seri Najib Razak the memo and hundreds of postcards signed by concerned citizens.

Members showed up at the Pacific Sutera Hotel prior to Najib’s arrival at a dialogue session with the Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah, and were positive about meeting him.

However, just as T. Tashnee, 10, the daughter of one of the Green SURF members was about to pass the postcards when Najib walked into the venue, security officials stopped her.

Tashnee who was excited about passing the postcards to Najib had to settle with handing over her postcard and others written by people asking the government to reconsider the project, to an aide of the Prime Minister.

Green SURF’s Cynthia Ong said she was concerned that the Prime Minister was not getting the correct information on the issue of having a 300 megawatt coal plant in Lahad Datu.

“There are local, national and global movements against this plant. We have passed numerous memos to him via other officials and all we wanted was a few minutes to explain our stand,” Ong said in a statement.

Before Najib arrived, Ong and other members including Sabah Environment Protection Association (SEPA) president Wong Tack managed to spend 10 minutes with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.

Ong said Koh promised to pass the message from Green SURF to the Prime Minister.

“He told us not to worry, and that he wants a power point presentation with details,” she said.

Last month, Green SURF tried to meet with Najib at the Dewan Rakyat but were unable to, passing their memo to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz instead.

For more information on Green SURF, visit http://nocoalsabah.blogspot.com