I refer to the article: GM Aedes: Public Consultation held by Yamuna Perimalu and would like to offer the following comments:
The current Malaysian Biosafety Act (which governs the GM Mosquitos release) is silent on the issue of Redress & Liability and it will probably be many more years before this Issue is incorporated into the act.
Do the authorities expect Malaysian taxpayers to foot the bill in the event of untoward effects that might occur from the release of GM mosquitos?
IMR collaborated with a UK-based private entity to release GM mosquitos.
If the release of GM mosquitos into the Malaysian environment is supposedly safe, would the proponents of its release and the owners and directors of this UK-based company be prepared to personally indemnify Malaysians in the event of the release resulting in detrimental effects on human, animal or environmental health?
If not, who would be responsible?
GM Aedes mosquitos are man-made organisms - they have no way of existing naturally. Further, these are human disease carrying vectors and to compare these man-made mosquitos with US pink bollworm and fruit flies is to confuse the public.
The latter two organisms are not disease carrying vectors and have no direct impact on human health. The issue of these man-made GM mosquitos interacting in the wild environment cannot be accurately predicted, even among specialists in the field.
Malaysia has quite stringent requirements in regards to the release of pharmaceutical products (and certain medical devices) into our local market.
Our regulation requires that such 'new' pharmaceutical medicines must have already been in the market of their country of origin before they can even be licensed for sale in Malaysia.
If these same requirements are used as a yardstick for the release of GM mosquitos (which has a direct effect on human health), their trial release would not be allowed!
Having been in contact with many people in Bentong, I can attest to the fact that up till now, the majority of the population there has scant information on the issue of GM mosquitos!
This is obviously not in the spirit of 'Public Consultation' within the context of our Biosafety Act.
It is incumbent in part of the authorities to hold public forums to inform the population of Bentong regarding the GM mosquitos and these forums should also include views from other scientists and NGOs.
Indeed, as mosquitos do not recognise town or state borders, every Malaysian has the right to express his or her view on the matter.
Dengue fever is a terrible disease that affects many people and the authorities should be applauded for taking note of this problem seriously.
However for now, there should be a moratorium on the release of man-made GM mosquitos as a form of biological control.
This is because there's still no general consensus, even among the scientific communities, on the efficacy and long term consequences of the GM mosquitos' release.
Trial or otherwise, the release of GM mosquitos in Bentong or in any town will virtually become a nationwide release of these man-made mosquitos in Malaysia.
At the very least, our Malaysian authorities must have put in place a clear regime of Redress & Liability before their release can be even discussed and considered.
