Charles Santiago

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FILM ON THE STRUGGLE OF THE INDIGENOUS ORANG SELETAR IN JOHOR IS NOW ONLINE Posted: 18 Dec 2011 06:41 PM PST "Lot Umah Am" or "The Sea is My Home", one of the 2 films produced for the FreedomFilmFest 2011 film competition is now online. Its a documentary about the Indigenous Orang Seletar living on the Straits of Johor whose livelihood and way of life is threatened by the development process in the area. This documentary was screened in many states throughout Malaysia as part of the FFF premiere roadshow including screenings in Johor Bharu and also in the community musuem of the Orang Seletar in Kg Temun recently. It generated a lot of discussion amongst the community and also it gave the orang Seletar an outlet to voice their concerns. On December 15, 2011 a group of about 500 Orang Seletar made a historic protest outside the Johor state assembly in Kota Iskandar, Johor, to voice their anger over the transfer of their ancestral land to developers of the Iskandar Malaysia project along the Johor Straits.

Report: M’sians must brace for more floods Posted: 18 Dec 2011 06:39 PM PST Source: Free Malaysia Today   atrick Lee | December 14, 2011 Floods in cities today are a result of climate change and rapid development, the World Bank says. PETALING JAYA: There are more floods in Malaysian cities today than there were a decade ago, and the problem is here to stay, a report by the World Bank said. According to the Malaysia Economic Monitor 2011 (Smart Cities) report, many urban areas were concentrated in places where natural disasters, especially floods, were commonplace. "Rapid development and environmental degradation have caused worse and more frequent occurence of floods and landslides, especially in urban areas. "While heavy rainfall in Malaysia is linked to climatic patterns, man-made factors aggravate the impact of floods. "Rapid development in densely populated flood plains, flood-prone areas or hill-slopes, together with environmental degradation, particularly deforestation, increased the vulnerability to floods and landslides," the report said. It added that while Malaysian floods were not as bad as Thailand's, they still had a potential of causing massive economic losses. More than 600 people have died in floods swamping more than half of Thailand's 76 provinces, marking it the worst the country has experienced in nearly 70 years. 50,000 in Johor evacuated Floods Thailand started in mid-2011, and are currently ongoing, with an estimated US$45 billion in losses. Though nowhere as serious as Thailand, Malaysia was still prone to serious floods. In February 2011, more than 50,000 people in Johor were evacuated after floods hit the state. Recently, Kajang experienced its worst floods in 40 years. Just last night, flood waters overflowed into Jalan Tun Razak, creating massive traffic jams across the Klang Valley. According to the World Bank report, an estimated 29,800 sq kms of Malaysia was flooded every year, affecting almost five million people with damages of almost US$300 million. The World Bank report said that the government was looking into the matter, but needed to do more in damming flood waters. Traditional methods, structural flood control systems and rubbish in the waters, it added, only made the problem worse. "Malaysia has started to complement defensive action and structural flood controls but more comprehensive approaches are needed," the report said. "Soil erosion, river sedimentation, proliferation of solid waste in rivers and a lack of integrated river basin management have aggravated flood and landslide control problems."

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