The Growing Chorus of Voices
Whether people like it or not, environmental activism is now a well-recognised stakeholder at the table as we transition from a linear, fossil fuel economy to a sustainable, circular and bio-diverse world. What kind of economy we end up with is yet to be determined. As we progress along this journey it is common to hear of environmental activism in Western countries but not so much across the Asian region. Why?
The Video of the Week has been produced by a team of young investigative journalists under the R.AGE brand, owned by The Star Media Group (Malaysia). The video provides a balanced view of the palm oil industry, an industry that has decimated hundreds of thousands of hectares of native rainforests across Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. More importantly, the video has been produced by a new breed of Malaysian journalists who are young and who want to approach social and environmental issues their way.
Singapore
On Saturday, 23 September 2023, 1,400 people attended a climate change rally in Singapore. The Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Survey Report 2023, which was published on Thursday (21st September 2023) by the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute, showed that climate advocacy in Singapore is lower than in other countries in the region.
Only 43.7% of Singaporeans polled believe that climate change “is a serious and immediate threat to the well-being of the country”, a significant drop from 66.4% in 2021, but a slight increase from 40.5% in 2022.
The survey showed that fewer Singaporeans took steps to sign climate change-related petitions (17.6%) and attend protests (3.2%) compared to ASEAN’s average of 18.2% and 4.3% respectively.
“The Just Stop Oil campaign in the United Kingdom, which saw young British women douse a Van Gogh painting with soup to raise awareness of fossil fuel dependence, would not and could not ever happen in a country like Singapore,” says Kate Yeo a Singaporean climate campaigner.
“There would be a huge backlash, not just from the authorities, but from the Singaporean public who would turn against the environmental movement.” Yeo believes.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, around 90% of young people are worried about the impacts of the climate crisis. There is a high level of interest among adolescents in both urban and rural areas in participating in local mitigation efforts.
The estimated number of youth in Indonesia is 64.92 million, or almost a quarter of the total population. People aged between 17–39 made up 54% of voters in the 2024 presidential election. This shows the significant potential role of young people in Indonesia in improving policies and activities to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis.
Local youth movements in Indonesia focused on climate and environmental issues are gaining more public attention. These movements have raised a wide range of issues from plastic waste, pollution and deforestation to the displacement of indigenous people. Some of their activism has also served as a social accountability mechanism and resulted in policy changes.
Youth who are actively involved in climate and environmental movements are still mostly those with access to social capital, including university students and urban middle-class young people, and lived experience of the impact of the crises. This suggests that there is a need to bridge social capital to expand youth participation and create a more inclusive environment for young people with less access to networks and opportunities.
“As the climate crisis worsens, we must not give up. We must understand that we, the people also have the power to make change.”…Ms Marlina Yased, 45, a mother of five who lives in a two-room rental flat in Singapore.
Thailand
Those who advocate for Southeast Asia to transition to a clean renewable energy system are growing increasingly concerned about Thailand’s reliance on fossil gas, according to Yeb Sano, the Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia who is also on board the Rainbow Warrior.
Sano argues, “Thailand’s position as a regional energy hub has the potential to influence neighbouring countries. Moreover, the climate and biodiversity crises have had and will persistently have catastrophic impacts on Thai society and the rest of Southeast Asia. Addressing those threats through carbon capture and storage is completely wrong and aggravates climate injustice.”
Philippines
In September (2023), environmentalists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano planned to take a nighttime bus ride to Orion village along Manila Bay in the Philippines to protest construction threatening to displace local residents.
As Castro and Tamano prepared to board, a military SUV raced up from behind and half a dozen masked men jumped out to seize the pair.
The women, who are around 5 feet tall (152 cm) and in their early 20s, cried for help and tried to fight back. But they said they were quickly overpowered, tied up, blindfolded, gagged and shoved inside the vehicle to be whisked away to an unknown location.
“I was actually thinking while we were in the car, ‘Oh, it’s my end,’” Castro, 23, told Radio Free Asia.
Vietnam
Until recently, the Hanoi-based nonprofit where Hưng works as a legal advocate distributed its research online, freely circulating information it intended to support policies on climate change and other environmental issues. Now, Hưng says, such reports — many of them funded by international organizations — are only circulated internally among trusted working partners.
Hưng (not his real name) explains that this isn’t because his organization doesn’t wish to give the public access to its work. Instead, it is because the plight of a colleague, high-profile energy policy adviser Ngô Thị Tố Nhiên, has sent a chill down their spines.
Nhiên, founder and executive director of Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, has been detained since October 2023. In June, she was reportedly sentenced to 42 months in prison time for misappropriating state documents. Her trial was held behind closed doors and, unlike in previous cases involving environmental defenders, her conviction has not been publicized in state-affiliated media. Two state employees who worked with Nhiên on projects related to Vietnam’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) were also arrested in October 2023: Dương Đức Việt, a senior employee from the National Power Transmission Corporation, and Lê Quốc Anh, head of the system analysis department of the Power Engineering Consulting company, faced the same charges as Ngô, though even less is known publicly about the outcomes of their cases.
Conclusion
The relationship between the state, businesses and civil society is complicated. As activism grows, it is no longer about climate change, the range of issues confronting all of us is growing. Biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, climate justice, environmental damage, deforestation, pollution, a widening gap between rich and poor, affordable housing, cost of living, human rights, the list goes on.
Activism should not be seen as a threat to conservative governments or other Asian political regimes. We cannot put the genie back into the bottle, the activist voice will only get louder, accompanied by a rising choir of diverse sections of the population. We have demanded that governments enact legislation because we cannot change. Governments have limitations and above all need to be accountable. Activists provide balance and demand transparency. There is no going back…
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Ms Adrienna Zsakay is the Founder and CEO of Circular Economy Asia Inc., and this article represents her opinions on the circular economy. Circular World Pick of the Week is brought to you by Circular World™ Media — a brand owned by Circular Economy Asia Inc.
For all the best content, join one of the fastest-growing circular economy groups on LinkedIn — Circular Economy Asia.
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Who is R.Age?
Their YouTube channel states, “R.AGE is an award-winning investigative and impact journalism team, focusing on social justice and human rights issues. Our undercover and investigative work has uncovered issues such as student trafficking, child sexual grooming, wildlife smuggling, drug mule trafficking, and more. Our journalists then collaborate with activists, authorities, community members, and other stakeholders to help develop high-level solutions to these issues; and we rally the people to help make it happen. Ultimately, our goal is to use investigative journalism to make the world a better place.”
R.Age is the youth news and lifestyle platform of The Star Media Group, Malaysia’s top English daily newspaper. The Star is a party-owned paper, associated with the former government of Malaysia. Since 1977, The Star has been effectively controlled by the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a component party in the Barisan Nasional alliance, though it is part of the publicly listed Star Media Group (MYX: 6084). The largest stake, at 42.46%, is held by the MCA; the three next-largest shareholders are Amanah Saham Bumiputera, a unit trust scheme exclusive to Bumiputera (15.44%), the Malaysian superannuation scheme, the Employees Provident Fund (5.98%) and Tabung Haji, the government-run hajj savings and investment fund (5.42%). In April 2023, The Edge Communications Sdn. Bhd. and its owner Tan Sri Tong Kooi Ong have bought a stake in The Star , with Tong owning a direct interest of 0.25% stake and a 5.17% indirect interest through The Edge Communications.
References
‘Over 1,400 attend SG Climate Rally highlighting pervasive impact of climate change’ by Nikki Yeo, published by Channel News Asia, 23 September 2023
‘You cannot be an activist and not put yourself at risk’: Singapore climate campaigner Kate Yeo’ by Robin Hicks, published by Eco-Business, 11 April 2023
‘Energising youth engagement in environmental activism in Indonesia’ by Widi Laras Sari and Ryan Febrianto, published by East Asia Forum, 06 October 2023
‘In Southeast Asia, protecting the environment is its own hazard’ by Subel Rai Bhandari for Radio Free Asia, 07 March 2024
‘In Vietnam, environmental defense is increasingly a crime’ by Hướng Thiện, published by Mongabay, 03 September 2024
The Star (Malaysia) — Wikipedia
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
