Use of drones in Cameron Highlands criticised

KUALA LUMPUR: The use of drones or Unmmaned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) by the authorities to monitor land clearing and occupation in the Cameron Highlands is seen as not yielding the desired results, if not combined with strict and continuous enforcement.
President of Sahabat Alam Sekitar Malaysia (SAS), Datuk Abdul Malek Yusof, said monitoring based on enforcement was more efficient and effective to catch offenders than with the use of drones.
"Monitoring has to be done, enforcement must carry. It is not necessary that we use sophisticated tools (drones) for monitoring," he added.
He was responding to an initiative by the Survey and Mapping Department (Jupem) to monitor illegal land clearing with the use of UAV as announced by Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel recently.
Palanivel was reported to have said that the drones would be used for monitoring activities, especially in remote areas in the Cameron Highlands, in the morning and evening.
Abdul Malek also said the use of drones would incur high cost and that it would be better to utilise the fund increase the number of enforcement officers and personnel.
"When there is no enforcement, it is meaningless to use sophisticated gadgets," he added.
Meanwhile, there were various reactions from netizens on the use of the drones as posted in the social websites.
"Integrity is important. Technology is number two. The problem in Cameron Highlands is problem of integrity, not technology," posted Wak Dogol.
Another netizen, Zul Naim Ismail, wrote "no matter how sophisticated the technology, it is still human beings who control it and as long as there is corruption hrmmmm. A waste of people's money". – Bernama