On July 18, a delegation from coalition of Pengerang NGOs submitted to office of the President of Republic China (ROC) a memorandum of protest, requesting the ROC government to cancel the Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Technology Company (KKPTC) development project in the Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development (RAPID) project area which will be carried out in Pengerang, Johor.

The delegation who were represented by the Save Pengerang NGO chairperson Anis Afida, treasurer Chua Peng Siang, secretary Seng Siew Ping and Liew Yen Hean. Four observers from Pakatan Rakyat also accompanied the delegation. They were state assemblyman (ADUN) for Mengkibol, Tan Hong Pin; Tangkak ADUN Ee Chin Li; Bentayan ADUN Chua Wee Beng and Johor PAS representative Mazlan Aliman.

Concurrently, Er Teck Hwa, MP for Bakri held a press conference in the parliament to address the Malaysian media of the memorandum submission that was happening in Taiwan that same day.

In his press statement, Er said that the delegation had visited the Yunlin county in Taiwan to understand the issues and problems faced by the local residents after the building of the naphtha cracking factory there in the middle of 1990s.

According to Er, “as regards to the investment by KKPTC in Pengerang, the parties responsible for the preparation of the detailed environmental impact assessment report (DEIA) should have referred to the report prepared by Professor Jhan Jhang-Cyuan from the Public Health Research, Taiwan National University.”

“The investor (KKPTC) should explain why this project was cancelled in Taiwan and subsequently moved to Malaysia,” he stressed.

“The government should explain why such a project, that can eliminate Taiwan’s whole population in only 23 days, should be allowed in Malaysia.”

“The KKPTC project that will be developed in Pengerang will be 1.5 times the scale of the initial project in Taiwan. Does the Malaysian government wants to sacrifice the people’s lives in 34.5 days by continuing with this project?” Er added.

Er also added, even though this environmental issue has been widely covered by the Chinese language media, it has yet to be adequately covered by other language media. “This has led many Malaysians to be ignorant of this environmental issue.”

“For this purpose, I am working with three Johor ADUNs to translate the report prepared by Professor Jhan Jhang-Cyuan into Bahasa Malaysia so that Malaysians can understand and study the issue academically and scientifically,” he elaborated.