Malaysiakini Jan 19

Broga: Site visit turns into a day of drama
Claudia Theophilus
Jan 19, 06 8:49pm





It was a day filled with adrenaline-pumping drama for Broga residents and journalists who embarked on a journey to the area earmarked for the RM1.5 billion incinerator.

The drama unfolded during a slow trip to the newly-marked site in a convoy of 4WD vehicles employing tricky manoeuvres on a slippery mud road that cut through fruit orchards and rubber trees.

The group comprised residents, journalists, DAP non-governmental organisation bureau chief Ronnie Liu, Semenyih DAP branch chief Gan Boon Cheong and DAP international secretary Prof P Ramasamy.

Broga sub-committee chairperson Dr Zulkefly Mohamad Omar arrived much later.

First, two of the 4WDs got stuck in the mud. So, the media representatives had to continue the 45-minute hike uphill by foot.

At one point along the route, the sound of chain-saw and trees being felled were heard. Then, a newly-built open-sided wooden hut came into view with two men walking about.

After another 20-minute trek, three men were seen felling trees. Liu was heard shouting for them to stop work, saying that police reports have been lodged against the illegal activity.

Minutes later three Acehnese, one of them carrying a chain-saw on his shoulder, emerged from the hillside clearing and related how six of them had been hired last week to cut down trees in 40 acres of forest area.

Contract workers

Claiming ignorance on the land status, they said they were told it was Orang Asli land that was being cleared for oil palm cultivation.

One of them called their ‘employer’, a Jeffri, who then spoke to Liu and agreed to stop the felling.

The group continued to the new site of the incinerator further uphill where border markers were seen surrounding a five-acre land of rubber and fruit trees belonging to Wong Chen Kim, mother to the committee’s most vocal member Alice Lee, who was not present today.

However, upon return to the land clearing, the six Acehnese were seen detained in two Pajeros belonging to the Selangor Forestry Department enroute to the police station.

Met on location, central region forestry officer Muhamad Murad (left), who was accompanied by a uniformed ranger and three other officers, said they were conducting a routine check when they heard the sound of chain-saw.

He said although the area in question was not the Sungai Lalang forest reserve, it was an offence to fell trees and remove timber on state land without a permit.
“We need to first check the status of the land. If it is private land, the owner can fell the trees but needs to have a permit to transport the timber out.

“We will investigate this matter. I think this is most probably state land,” he told reporters and the Broga committee members.

Police reports

Ramasamy, who is Semenyih/Broga No Incinerator pro tem action committee chairperson and resident of Taman Tasik Semenyih, said later that the culprits could be outsiders taking advantage of the mud road cut through the forests for the incinerator project.

Earlier, two reports were lodged at the Semenyih police station over the land clearing nearby the incinerator site and against the Selangor Land and Minerals Department for acquiring land pending the approval of an additional environmental impact assessment (EIA) report.

The addendum is pending technical evaluation by the Department of Environment (DOE) which is seeking public comments until the extended date of Feb 28.

A new site was chosen after the original one, approximately 200 metres higher, failed to make the cut in the detailed EIA report which was given conditional approval on May 28.

It is believed that a failure to comply with the conditions had prompted a study of the new area, which report was completed in March last year but only released early last December.

But pending a DOE approval, the state land department has started paying compensation to Broga landowners totalling hundreds of thousands of ringgit for land to build an access road to the site of the 1,500-tonne capacity incinerator project.

Misleading statements

After lodging his report, Liu said the department is wrong because it was also named as a defendant in a related suit pending in the Shah Alam High Court.

“Making such statements is false and misleading. In our view, this amounts to a contempt of court,” he said, referring to a report in an English daily yesterday.

“Clearly the land acquisition procedures under the Land Acquisition Act 1960 have not also been followed.”

He said landowners must first be notified of the intention to and purpose of acquiring land followed by price negotiation and an offer letter on the agreed sum before finally issuing a letter to collect payment.

“We were told that some of the cheques were from the department and some from Ebara but we haven’t confirm this yet.”

The government hired Tokyo-based Ebara Corp, with its local partner Hartasuma Sdn Bhd, to design, build and operate the mammoth incinerator originally slated for operations in 2007.

For the past four years, residents in and around Broga, a remote farming hamlet that straddles Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, have doggedly opposed the construction of the giant plant.

They said it poses a health and environmental hazard, a huge burden on taxpayers and directly affects the local economy which is largely based on rubber small-holdings and fruit and vegetable farming.

The incinerator project was relocated from Kampung Bohol in suburban Puchong to backwater Broga in November 2002 following intense public pressure which posed a threat to the ruling government.

Ever since then, the government particularly the Housing and Local Government Ministry, has remained indifferent to Broga residents’ countless requests to hear them out.