The bauxite madness in Kuantan is actually a showdown between the federal and state governments, says environmental policy researcher Chung Yi Fan.

He referred to the New Straits Times coverage of the bauxite issue as an example, claiming that the Umno-controlled media only mentioned the Pahang government in its reports.

This, Chung noted, can be seen as the daily trying to shift any perception of blame for the environmental disaster entirely onto the state government's shoulder.

The researcher wondered if the Umno-controlled federal government was using the media it indirectly controls to subtly impart a warning to state authorities.

"This hints of a showdown. It is as if the federal government is warning the 'big power' which has long been entrenched in Pahang," Chung said at a forum titled 'Behind the red tide: The Kuantan bauxite crisis' at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall last night.

"We have to look at what has been left unreported by the English daily, as there is no mention of the federal government at all," he pointed out.

"The totality of their reporting seems to hint that the responsibility lies solely with the state government, as if the federal government bears no responsibility at all."

However, this is not entirely the case, argued Chung ( photo ), who believes that the federal government is the authority with actual power to put a stop to the bauxite madness.

"Federal agencies have the power. If the agencies did not help grease the bauxite mining activity, things won't be as smooth as it is now."

Chung argued that while the extraction of minerals is a state matter, the licence to export the substance is issued by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry.

"Without federal government consent, no vessel would be allowed to ferry bauxite offshore," he said.

Besides the ministry, Chung said, the Royal Customs and Excise Department, the MACC, the Kuantan Port Authority, the Health Ministry, the Road Transport Department, the Land Public Transport Commission and the Public Works Department all bore some responsibility in the matter.

On Jan 6, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry and Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob announced a three-month moratorium on all bauxite mining activities in Kuantan.

Prior to this, the New Straits Times carried various reports on the bauxite issue, even sendng its own investigative reporting team to Kuantan to obtain fish samples for laboratory tests, which reportedly confirmed that there is high concentration of arsenic in the marine life off Kuantan.

The same article also questioned whether the export duties collected by the state government actually matched the volume of bauxite exported.

The English daily also published an interview with MACC investigation director, Azam Baki, on Jan 11, where Azam urged the Pahang government to surrender information about bauxite mining to the commission.

In the same report, Azam also vowed to go after the “big fish” involved in alleged corruption and abuse of power connected to the bauxite mining activities that caused the environmental disaster in Kuantan.

Rivers and sea water have turned red and red dust fills the air everywhere in what was once the well-known vacation spot of seaside Kuantan.

The red tide, which environmentalists claimed is the result of unrestrained and unregulated bauxite mining, has raised the ire of locals and the Malaysian public, as authorities moved to implement damage control.