KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — Some 100 Pengerang residents who walked nearly 500km to protest the relocation of Chinese graves to make way for an oil refinery project there was greeted by unresponsive Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers when they arrived at Parliament here today.
Making the journey to seek the discontinuation of the controversial Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) there, the group had hoped to meet with BN and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers to make their case.
But the cause of 100-odd residents, mostly clad in green shirts printed with the words “Petronas, Stop”, failed to resonate with BN MPs, who merely walked away after listening to the movement’s representative.
Opposition MPs, however, greeted them and escorted the group to the lobby of Parliament lobby where a memorandum was handed over to Bakri lawmaker Er Teck Hwa of the DAP, who previously helped the residents campaign against state oil firm Petronas, the RAPID project’s owner.
“I support the demand by Chinese residents of Pengerang with regards to the relocation of the Pengerang Chinese Cemetery plots to make way for the project.
“This issue will give a huge impact to the Chinese community there and some of the graves are more than 100 years old, which means they must be preserved as a heritage site,” Er said in reading out his letter meant for Petronas chief executive officer Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abbas.
Er’s colleague, Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong, said at the same press conference that Petronas has a social responsibility to consider the sensitivities of the locals when planning a project that could affect the community.
“They cannot just plan in air conditioned room without taking into consideration local sensitivities,” he said.
Rights groups had previously called for a referendum on the matter while attempts to debate the issue failed when Er’s motion on the issue was rejected by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker.
The total value of the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) in Pengerang, which includes Petronas’ RM60 billion RAPID, is believed to involve RM170 billion worth of investments once it starts operations in 2016.
The mega project is expected to turn Pengerang into a boom town for global petroleum investors, rivalling neighbouring Singapore as Asia’s most vibrant petrochemical hub, and creating over 40,000 jobs for locals from construction to downstream activities
Apart from fear over reports that one of the investors in RAPID — KuoKuang Petrochemical — had to abandon its plan to house a petrochemical project in Taiwan following concerns that those living in close proximity to such developments would see their lifespans reduced, a number of the affected 3,129 villagers in Pengerang are also unhappy with the government’s compensation payment.
According to previous reports, licensed fishermen have been offered RM30,000 in compensation payments for the loss of their livelihood while unlicensed fishermen are being offered RM15,000. Smallholders with between one and two acres of land have been offered between RM65,000 and RM105,000.
The government has also offered villagers the option of subsidised alternative housing on a 6,000 square foot piece of land with a built-up area of between 750 and 1,600 square feet, some 15 to 20km from their villages.
