Sometimes, I do certainly feel that some of our leaders comments on our beautiful destination are like people who has not used their bestowed gift called brains from God at all. I am intrigued if they ever have any brains at all in the first place! For far too long now, our country's popular destinations had virtually been rampagedly raped over and over again by unscrupulous people who sets up chalets and modern facilities in protected areas of interest. While these facilities mushroomed over the years, it comes with plenty ofhazards along the way. When it gets over populated, they start putting the dollar sign in all earnesty to garner in as much as possible rather than thinking of ways to conserve that beautiful destination. I remembered that during my younger days, hiking up Gunung Ledang was a pleasurable thing to do and it's free. Nowadays, you need to pay for climbing permit, guide and what not before you can even take a step up the mountain. The worst part is even before you reach Gunung Ledang, there is a booth asking you to pay for your car and your passengers too. Choosing the wise words from Chinese vocabulary - NIAMAH!The latest controversy involved Pulau Redang. My question is , in the first place , who issued the over-subscribed chalet building facilities on that island way before anything else? Why complain now when you issued so many chalet permits in the first place? I remembered the days when I went over to the island with the teacher's trainees group and it was really beautiful with really basic facilities. Now, the island is cramply littered with chalets and 5 star hotels and what not. Yes, development comes with a price, you may say and now, you want to make it an exclusive place to go with a hefty ceiling price? Now, that's a bit too much to swallow. It is like my future generation of children will NEVER ever be able to enjoy a stay on that island with THAT price! What a shame indeed. We have been outcast/3rd class citizen in our own country when foreigners gets priority over our own place! Even the Indons are getting better treatment than us when it comes to places of interest, right? That's shockingly stupid or is the government indeed is adamant in losing another election? Look, you shockingly nitwits , if the proper authorities do their part in cleaning up the rubbish on our island , educate the people of the need for clean environment and really put an effort to clean up our act in the administration side, I am sure our islands will be clean and affordable. If my group of travellers comprising of people of all ages have done that conscientiously when we went to Redang Island about 3 years ago, why can others do the same? BTW, the coral surrounding the marine park where thousands and thousands stupidly snorkelled there have turned whittish and dead, ok? The answer is the dumbish attitude of authorities and the people itself. I still remember the beach being littered with beer cans, bottles and what not during our nite out at the prime beach area in Redang Island. Why can't there be adequate rubbish bin around, why can't senseless loud music & open air parties be curbed [ afterall, they go all the way till the wee hours of the morning ] and why can't the resorts/chalet ensure that the beach is cleaned instead of hoping for the tide to flow the crap /rubbish to the sea? Afterall, they make their living because of the prime beach, right? Make them clean up and make rubbish disposal an urgency. That's the problem with attitude!
Next comes, Taman Negara. This place is virtually a place for foreign tourist nowadays. One reason I have given up hope in going over to this place is because of the pricing of accomodation and food at the National Park itself. It is ridiculously expensive and only an elect few of our country people will be able to stay on the Park itself. I remembered telling one of the resort staff that Taman Negara accomodation are for foreigners only and he told point-blankly, " Yup, it is for our foreign tourist now and we don't encourage local tourist!" Niamah, am I not a Malaysian citizen and am I not a tax payer whereby some funds are already been invested here or am I not a paying individual, meh! This is the type of mentality we have in our popular destination these days! The dollar sign mentality generation! That was the last time I step my foot at the accomodations in the Park itself. Now, it's over the other side of the river accomodations that had captured the local market. Again, we are alienated in our own beautiful land. With this fees and that fees and what not, climbing Gunung Tahan is definitely way out of the reach of our children one day. To me, I am okay. I have scaled Gunung Tahan and the beauty scenery had captured my heart a lot but seeing the overpriced fees and so on, I shuddered at the thought of my children taking an effort to scale the mountain. I wonder if we will ever wake up from this.
Then, there is the majestic Gunung Kinabalu. Like I said, I have scaled this mountain many times and it is always a joy for me to see its beauty. It is a majestic feeling when you are the top of Mt.Kinabalu. But have you ever tried working out the cost on such an expedition? Well, I have and the figures are really too much for a local person to scale the mountain. Sure, it is peanuts money for the "angmoh" or foreigners while the same amount of money spent on such a mission will be bring much paradise to me and my family if I were to spend it in Phuket, Haadyai or even Ko Samui, Thailand! I haven't even touched on the highlands accomodations and fees yet ! Yes, you are damn right, I am disillusioned as a Malaysian when it comes to the rape of our islands, our highlands and our mountains. It is simply because I am a nature lover and I believe in local holidays but these rocketing prices in accomodation, food and services are really eating into our holiday expenses with the family. What quality of life you are talking about when I can't even bring my children and family to a decent holiday destination in Malaysia without raising a bomb of finance which is incidentally my beloved country. I can say one thing for sure, Malaysia offers some of the most beautiful places of interest and nature in the world but we are making it so exclusive only for foreigners who had repeatedly raped their own land until they have become wasteland and museum bound. Do you want to see our beautiful flora and fauna of our beloved country in historical museums or do you want to see it alive and well? To me, there must be sustainability in business but affordable while conservation should also take priority. Even if the locals themselves can't afford to pay the required permit fees and what not, how on earth are we going to tell our children that we have such and such of plant or animals in our land? I bet you, some of it had probably land in some dish, soup or broth somewhere in smaller towns! So, leaders of our country, a big majority of our nations hardworking men and women - single , married or otherwise are hardworking, industrious and average income individuals. Please, spare a thought for these people. We, too needs breaks and places to go with our families. If the people in their own land can't even get to go their own places of interest, that's call poorness in the administration of the natural wealth of our beloved country!
For goodness heaven sakes, think of the people - not how much more we can make/charge from this place or that place! If you are going to charge , by all means charge but be it minimal and worthwhile for the people to still enjoy the beauty of our land. Exhorbitant fees and what not will definitely hurt our place of interest and the people. Imagine if you pay RM 10.00 entrance fee to see one monkey! How would you feel? That too is a preserved monkey! I leave this thought to you! You can infer or think what ever you want. My conscience is crystal clear!~
