COMMENT | How do you make normally “relaxed” civil servants work super hard?

Pahang may have found the “secret formula” for this - tell them that they are “saving the environment” This was the supposed “noble cause” that led the state’s forestry department to boast they had chopped down 15,000 mature durian trees in record time.

The General Operations Force (GOF) were also there to enforce this new-found “passion” to go green. Why, it almost seemed that the durian farmers were like “eco-terrorists” that had to be deterred by men wearing army uniforms and toting machine guns. What a “fantastic” show of force!

So, can all Malaysians rest assured that our forests, rivers and coral reefs will be protected from now on? And that this blessed land will be nature’s paradise reborn?

But sad to say, eco protection may just be a green fig leaf to cover up baser instincts. As is well known by now, a consortium called Royal Pahang Durian Resources-PKPP...