LETTER | MPs should talk to locals benefiting from PSR

LETTER | We at AnakPinang would like to invite Nurul Izzah Anwar and Reezal Merican to visit the Penang South Reclamation (PSR) area to talk to the fishermen and young graduates who are now being gainfully employed in the project.

We believe their statements calling for the Penang and federal governments to cancel the PSR project in view of pressing needs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic were not well informed.

Many Penangites are worrying about how this latest full lockdown will impact their employers and ultimately their jobs and families in Penang. 

Because of the uncertainties and insecurities faced by many salaried workers and freelancers, the two MPs’ attacks on the PSR project were counter-productive and demoralising.

We look to our MPs to provide practical solutions to help sustain our livelihoods but what we get is a call to cancel the PSR and along with it, the elimination of the project’s current employment of Penangites and upcoming job opportunities.

Therefore, we want to invite the esteemed MPs to meet the current workers in the PSR area to hear from them their views and how the project has helped them to get through this present struggle of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Through the PSR, more fishermen are going to get a stable salary, jobs, training and educational opportunities for their kids and boats.

There will be measures to minimise and control the environmental impact. 

Federal agencies like the Department of Environment should play their important role to ensure that mitigation measures be followed in the implementation of the PSR so that only minimal effects occur.

This while retaining jobs and creating new ones simultaneously. 

We believe this is a more balanced approach that will bring practical solutions to Penang right now rather than cancelling the project.

The above is signed by AnakPinang members:

Timothy Tye
Mohd Nasarudin Sultan
Rodney Fong
Joshua Woo
Magima Raj Pragasam
Ling Chee Seng

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