Malaysian Policy On Environmental Security

MALAYSIAN POLICY ON ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY UKM GUP ASPL 07 06 003 Dr Mohd Rizal Mohd Yaakop ABSTRACT The issue of environmental security emerged in recent years is not surprising. Malaysia face such obvious environmental threats such as climate change, desertification and deforestation. Such threats seem to be much more alarming than conventional military threats. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, worries about accelerating damage to the environment started to articulate. As a result UN Commission on Environmental Protection promoted “sustainable development” as an operational concept to be applicable to deter environmental problems. Furthermore by the declaration of Brundtland Commission Report, the concept of sustainable development hand been internationally standardized. The environmental issues in the form of resource shortages and climate change constitute a major international security threat and will cause much more wars in the future as the `world population is pushing against the earth’s resources, straining its ability to meet the needs of this generation and the next` The understanding of Malaysian policy on environmental issue in Malaysia is also challenging since environment is a relatively large area and sector to be discussed of. There is a risk that by analyzing environment as part of security sector or category that the analysis will become less coherent than most of the other security sector. Furthermore, there are theoretical problems and controversies pertaining to the operational utility of the concept of sustainable development.

The main research questions are: What is Malaysian policy on

environmental security issues? Are environmental issues become its matter of national and international interest? How Malaysia reacts towards various issues related to environmental threats? Objective (s) of the research are; To investigate how Malaysia’s understanding on environmental security; to assess factors influencing

Malaysian understanding of environmental security;

to

investigate various

government agencies which influence Malaysian understanding on environmental security. This research adopts a qualitative method in collecting data. The same applies to method of analysis. The main research method sre surveys, interviews and observations. Interviews are conducted with officers in charge at agencies and ministerial level.– Among the respondents are officers at Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, government agencies such as Forest Research Institute of Malaysia and Indonesia.