We, the undersigned, are writing to express our strongest dissent towards the proposal by your department to de-gazette 70 acres of land within Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve for a housing development. There is currently a glut in the housing market, but a dire shortage of natural reserves required for sustaining air quality, water supply, and other basic physical needs (flood control) in Selangor. The Pakatan Rakyat government promised in 2008 to get tough on deforestation, and to protect Selangor’s last remaining natural reserves. This finally gave us citizens hope that our forest reserves would at last be given the protection they deserve, after years of active destruction by state governments across Malaysia. So this latest proposal by your department comes as a great disappointment and feels like a betrayal of the public’s trust.

You are well aware that congestion, air pollution, and water shortages are serious problems that daily affect the quality of life of residents in this already-overdeveloped state. Added to this is the recent government move to import plastic waste from abroad, making an already compromised ecology even more toxic. Now more than ever we need the support of our natural forests for our physical and mental health.

We therefore urge your department to scrap the proposed Bukit Lagong development project immediately and irrevocably. Please defend our natural forest reserves: we, the rakyat, place our trust in you to protect the life support system that we depend upon.

Thank you for your attention and for your ongoing commitment to making life better for us all.