IN June last year, there was much publicity regarding the gazetting of Bukit Kiara as a Green Lung. Every morning, hundreds of people use the area to exercise, breathe some fresh air and get the day off to a good start.

It is therefore with dismay that I witnessed the large-scale destruction of the reserve over the last three weeks. There have been excavators and tractors pushing numerous 6m-wide badly constructed roads throughout the reserve. The roads are all poorly drained and will turn to quagmires over time.

As we strive towards developed nation status, there will be some tangible indicators such as infant mortality rates, GDP per capita, etc, that will indicate our progress.

I suggest, however, that it will be the small intangible things, such as attitudes to the protection of the environment and the attitudes of the government departments in putting the community’s interests above the interests of well-connected people, that will really decide when the journey has been completed.

SIMON JEFFERY,

Kuala Lumpur.

Source: The Star – January 24, 2008