Sarawak cabinet members can decide on their own whether to declare or not their pledge not to allow their family members or relatives to apply for logging concessions or state land, Chief Minister Adenan Satem said in Kuching today.

However, he said that he would advise them to do so just like what he had done just months after he took office.

“I’m still committed to that (pledge). This one (to get the other cabinet members of the state to make a similar pledge) is up to them... though I would advise them to do so,” he told a press conference after officially opening an Integrity Seminar for Sarawak Civil Services Enforcement Personnel in Kuching.

Adenan, who became Sarawak’s fifth chief minister last March, had made a commitment not to allow his immediate family members to apply for state land or logging concessions as recommended by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed last June.

However, since then none of his cabinet members had followed suit to make similar pledges publicly.

Meanwhile, Adenan, who is also the state Resource Planning and Environment Minister, said the state was in the process of equipping its Forestry Department personnel with firearms and more four-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles to combat illegal logging.

He said 50 personnel from the department would be the pioneer to be trained to handle the firearms that would be carried by them during illegal logging tracking operations.

The move, he said, would boost the personnel’s confidence to carry out their duties particularly in facing illegal loggers who might be armed and aggressive.

According to him, Sarawak forests had been devastated by illegal loggers and although there had been several successful raids that had been made against these activities, there could be more that had yet to be discovered.

“We want forest officers and forest wardens to be on the ground all the time to patrol. I expect to see results (on dwindling cases of illegal logging) in the next six months. If the figure does still not improve, then we will have to do something more drastic,” he added.  

- Bernama