In Malaysia, association fights dumping, expropriations, "bad development"

THE Consumers’ Association of Penang made news in the International Herald Tribune when the newspaper published an article on CAP’s early struggles, its triumphs and its stand on the environment, in the issue of 20 Feb 1995.

The article says that CAP has become a household name in Malaysia and a model for similar organisations in a number of developing countries.

Jon Liden, a journalist based in Hong Kong, wrote the article.

We reproduce the article on this page for the benefit of all readers of Utusan Konsumer.

WHEN SM Mohained Idris and a few others got together in the Penang Public Library in November 1969 to form Consumers’ Association of Penang, consumer Issues were simple for most Malaysians: You either consumed or you didn’t, depending on the year’s harvest, or the size of your plantation worker’s salary.

Mr Idris, his friends say, is blessed with prescience and pragmatism. While most radical intellectuals at the time were consumed by ideology and development theory on a grand scale, Mr Idris saw the need for a practical, nonideological organisation that could guide consumers through the Increasingly complex society that would develop as Malaysia industrialised, and which could defend their rights when big business took advantage of these newcomers to the consumer society.

In the early 1970s, Mr Idris was among the first to warn against the possible environmental disasters that could result from rapid development and In 1982, the Consumers’ Association of Penang started a legal section, sensing that the courtrooms would be more effective than protest demonstrations in securing ordinary people’s interests against unwanted development.

With Its large emphasis on education and Information and its insistence on seeing consumer issues in a broader social and environmental context, the association has become a household name in Malaysia and a model for similar organisations in a number of developing countries.

In addition to its complaints service and consumer research, the association has led several environmental campaigns and fought legal battles to stop projects that it judged to be negative to the local population or to the environment. It succeeded in closing a Japanese factory that dumped lead and low radiation waste in a neighbouring state. Three years ago, it won a battle with developers and the state government, who had wanted to turn Penang Hill. a mountain that rises up from Penang town, into a major recreational development, with hotels and Japanese pension homes.

The consumer’s association is currently giving legal assistance to a community of rice farmers in Kedah State who face expropriation of their land for a joint-venture shrimp farm project.

With Malaysia approaching industrialised nation status with a large and increasingly sophisticated middle class, some question whether the association’s wide-ranging, politicised and, at times, morailsing approach to consumer issues has become outdated.

Meenakshi Raman, who heads the association’s legal section, disagrees. "The problems are even more serious now," she says. "The environmental impacts of development are greater and more communities are uprooted to make space for urban growth, for industry, for tourism projects and so on. This development is quicker now than 10 years ago, and our work has become much more demanding."

With Its critical stand to several commercial projects, its lambasting of the logging industry and its attacks on junk food and Western-style entertainment and advertising, the association has also been accused of being anti-development. This is an allegation the organisation strongly denies.

"We are not against development as such, only against bad development. I think more Malaysians are beginning to see the difference," said Miss Raman.

Although It is often a thorn in the side of federal or state government agencies eager to increase growth and quickly create industrial or service jobs, the consumer’s association is respected in government circles, and its members sit on the board of the National Advisory Council for Consumer Protection.

"We don’t want our country to be a dumping ground for inferior or dangerous products. In the work to protect consumer interests against unscrupulous business interests which want to exploit the market opportunities, consumer organisatlons like CAP play an important role," said Dato Haji Mohamad Izat Emir, chairman of the national council. "It has shown its willingness tp play a positive role in the fight for consumer protection."

In a show of appreciation for the authorities’ effort, the consumer’s group last year suggested that the Ministry for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs should nominate itself for the "consumer award of the year," which the ministry gives to persons and organisations that have done commendable work for consumer interests.

"There is a strong new consciousness among Malaysians of environmental Issues and govemment accountability and quality, and I believe the message of CAP Is as relevant today as it was 10 or 20 years ago," said Anwar Fazal, one of the association’s founders and former president of the International Organisation for Consumer Unions. "CAP’s success lies in the way it has been able to connect the items in our shopping basket with broader development Issues."

The association stresses that the foundation of its work is the educational activities and Its contact with individual consumers. The organisation receives between 2,000 and 3,000 complaints on products and services each year. It publishes a bimonthly magazine on consumer issues and a children’s magazine, runs courses in schools and collaborates with radio and television.

Recent issues of the magazine have included exposes of unsafe levels of lead in coloured pencils for children, the high cost of common drugs and pharmaceuticals 1n Malaysia, and the uprooting of local communities to make way for industrial development without proper compensation. An article also warned that karaoke singing could damage the vocal chords.

"CAP’s aim is to help build a new generation of critical, knowledgeable consumers," Mr Fazal said.

Mr Idris, who still leads the association 25years after he conceived it. is given most of the credit for Its continued relevance. "He is a visionary, and CAP’s driving force even after all these years, said Chee Yoke Ling, who sits on the association’s council, an advisory forum of academics, lawyers and professionals.

"He started in the early 1970s to make environmental damage a major issue for CAP. He has been able to attract good people and create a very dynamic work style within the organisation. He keeps up a continuous dialogue within CAP of Its direction and Its aims."

A NEW analysis of insecticide use in rice In the Philippines and Vietnam has found that a large proportion of the insecticides currently used are unnecessary.

Researchers at the International Rice Research Institute and the Vlsayas State College ofAgriculture in the Philippines and the Ministry of Agriculture in Vietnam interviewed over 950 farmers in selected areas of these countries to compare insecticide use patterns.

During the study, researchers found that high proportions of the sprays were targeted at leaf-feeding insects and accounted for 42% and 28% of insecticide sprays In Vietnam and the Philippines, respectively.

However, insecticide use patterns in areas studied did not appear to reflect pest situations. In both sites, there were no serious pest attacks during the periods when the surveys were done.

In Vietnam, farmers use insecticides to protect their crops from leaf damage In the early stages because they perceive that this damage can lead to yield loss. Farmers often believe that insects are the main constraints to high yields.

Studies have shown, however, that such leaf damage does not reduce yields. Using insecticides in this manner can lead to a disruption of natural mechanisms, which then require additional sprays against the secondary pest, the brown planthopper.

The study points out that large yield increases attributed to insecticide use have been documented often under conditions of "maximum protection", and although these figures frequently represent rare and abnormal cases, they continue to be used by researchers and policy makers.

Researchers’ perceptions of pest losses are often based on generalisations from single-period and short-term experiments. The authors’ evidence indicates that the results of such experiments may have influenced policy makers to assume that intensification of rice cultivation necessarily leads to increased pest losses and that high production is not possible without higher pesticide inputs.

The authors conclude that these perceptions, although not necessarily true, have strongly influenced the rapid increase in insecticide use on tropical rice.

A study in Indonesia has shown that when farmers reduced insecticide sprays on rice crops from more than four to about one per season, average yields rose from 6.1 to 7.4 tonnes per hectare.

Other recent studies show that when pesticide-related health impairments are explicitly accounted for, the natural control (i.e. using no pesticide) option becomes most profitable.

Almost all of the farmers interviewed (96% in Vietnam and 89% in the Philippines) sprayed at least one pesticide during a growing season.

Application rates were higher in Vietnam, with a mean of seven sprays per farmer, compared to only three in the Philippines. Over 90% of the pesticides sprayed were Insecticides.

Approximately half of the insecticides used were organophosphates, including methyl parathion, monocrotophos, methamidophos and chiorphyrifos.

Of the insecticides sprayed, 22% in the Philippines and 17% in Vietnam were WHO Class Ia (extremely hazardous), primarily methyl parathion.

Another substantial proportion were WHO Class lb (highly hazardous) —17% in the Philippines and 20% in Vietnam. These included monocrotophos, methamidophos, azlnphos ethyl, carbofuran and triazophos.

The study concludes that farmers protect their crops from leaf damage in the early stages because they perceive that this damage can lead to yield loss.

However, In most cases, natural populations of leaf-feeders are unlikely to cause sufficient yield loss to justify any use of insecticides. As a result, a large proportion of Insecticides used in rice production is unnecessary.

The authors recommend focusing research and training on ways to change farmers’ perceptions of pests, and thereby reduce the amount of pesticides they use. - Pesticides Action Network