Perspective — The Sipadan Saga
There’s been a lot of heated discussion in the past week or so about recent events at Sipadan. FiNS Magazine contributor Tony Wu sifts through the debate and gets to the heart of the matter.
There’s a saying that goes, “Timing is everything in life.” How true.
Earlier this month, FiNS Magazine contributors Andrea Ferrari and Alex Mustard were diving in one of Asia’s hottest dive destinations — Sabah.
Though they weren’t travelling together, “timing” in this case coincidentally put both photographer/ journalists in Sabah at the precise time when a barge laden with construction materials ran aground on Sipadan Island.
Jointly, they prepared a blog post, which triggered a flurry of domestic and international commentary. To get a quick overview of the debate, do a quick search on Google News with the term “Sipadan”.
Having not been on location myself, it’s difficult to know precisely what happened. But in the intervening days, I’ve had a chance to communicate with many of the parties concerned — dive operators, journalists and many of the people providing commentary — as well as to read many of the articles, posts, blogs and emails circulating on this topic. For what it’s worth, here’s my two cents.
First, it’s clear that no one thinks that having a barge hit Sipadan is a good idea. But let’s keep things in proper perspective. Both Alex and Andrea pointed out that the accident did not destroy Sipadan. The damage is limited to a portion of the reef. To underscore this point, Alex posted in a public forum that, “this accident has not ruined diving on Sipadan” and later elaborated that “most damage is on top of the reef – and I am sure many people would swim [past]…and not know what is above them.”
Now before anyone goes off half-cocked and starts flaming me, let’s agree on one thing — understanding the facts is vital to drawing the correct conclusions — so bear with me.
In some commentary, the extent of the damage has been magnified to the point where many believe Sipadan is gone forever, or that there’s no hope. The barge has even magically been transformed into a “tanker” in some emails and posts.
In other instances, divers have, without any evidence, speculated that the construction materials were for the purpose of building a large resort, a restaurant, a casino, or other such silly statements. C’mon, get real.
And why is all this relevant? Because by getting carried away in the heat of the moment and losing sight of reality, some people are concluding that divers should never visit Sipadan or Sabah again.
That’s just utter nonsense.
As Andrea correctly points out, “Dive operators and avid divers can be Sipadan’s best partners in safeguarding its reef.”
In other words, the issue at hand is to assess damage and repair whatever can be repaired, i.e., to learn lessons from this experience. The objective should at no time be to discourage people from visiting the area, because with a loss of tourism dollars, the fate of Sipadan and surrounding areas is certain — total destruction. Tourism keeps the area alive, and tourism is the best chance for preserving the environment.
So if you’re out there feeling all indignant, telling everyone not to go to Sabah, then paradoxically what you’re really trying to do is to destroy the marine environment in Sabah. Get it?
And don’t discount the damage that you’re inflicting upon the lives of perfectly innocent people who rely on tourism revenue — resort staff, food suppliers, taxi drivers, etc. — all of whom had nothing to do with this mishap, and probably are as upset or more than you.
The bottom line is this: Accidents happen, and when they do, it’s important to ascertain the causes, so future accidents can hopefully be prevented. It’s ok to be upset. It’s ok to feel bad. But it’s not ok to boycott Sabah. And it’s certainly not ok to send hate emails and faxes to dive operators in Sabah, or to place nasty phone calls to parties in Sabah, as some overly emotional, albeit probably well-intentioned, people have done.
So let’s all get over the initial shock and hysteria, and let’s focus on what’s important. Let the authorities, parks officials and dive operators in Sabah do their soul-searching. The review process is already underway, and believe me, all parties are painfully aware of how strongly the global dive community feels about this.
There’s no issue with sending people in Sabah feedback, suggestions or even constructive criticism, but there’s nothing to be gained by venting rage or vitriol toward them, and it’s definitely not constructive to belittle the efforts they’re making.
In the meantime, visit Sabah if you can. Why? Because this will underscore to the relevant authorities that it’s worth taking issues like environmental protection seriously. And hopefully that way, mistakes that were made will not be repeated.
Fortunately, most of Sipadan is perfectly fine. And nearby dive areas like Mabul, Kapalai, Mantanani, Layang Layang, Mataking, Roach Reefs, and Lankayan are all ok, so there’s plenty of beautiful marine life to see and enjoy.
Until next time, happy diving!