The black sludge of oil relentlessly made its way up the white sand of Long Beach in Pulau Redang, in Terengganu, instantly befouling it with a suffocating thick cover of oozing toxicity. The engine oil that washed upon the beach had likely been dumped deliberately into the sea. “Someone put the oil…

Azure waters. Palm-lined sandy beaches. Picturesque corals with bountiful marine life. So go the usual descriptors of Malaysia’s shorelines in popular tourist brochures, which dutifully reel off the pristine beauties of the country’s natural maritime features and resources. Such laudatory prose isn’t unjustified, of course, but a lot of those…