The shores of Kampung Bakar Batu Perling near a multi-billion-ringgit waterfront development project at Danga Bay in Johor Baru. -THOMAS YONG/The Star
JOHOR’S Orang Seletar or Orang Laut villagers are appealing to the Federal and Johor governments to look into their welfare as they are facing hardship.
Tok Batin Kais Tee from Kampung Bakar Batu Perling said their livelihood was affected following vast development taking place in Danga Bay, Johor Baru, near their village.
“We are hoping candidates for the upcoming Pulai constituency by-election will visit us and listen to our problems,” he said in an interview at the village.
The 62-year-old village chief said the villagers were facing difficulties in making ends meet because of dwindling catch from the sea.
Kais said the problems had been going on for a decade since the start of a multi-billion-ringgit waterfront development project located about 13.1km from the village.
Kais says the Orang Seletar’s livelihood is affected by development taking place in Danga Bay.
“We used to fish just in front of our village, in areas rich with mangrove trees back in the 1960s until the early 1990s.”
He said now that the mangrove trees had been cleared, fish and other marine animals were no longer coming to spawn and breed in the mangrove ecosystem.
Tanai Tom, 65, said that prior to the land reclamation activities, waters off the village were rich with fish species such as ikan merah, tebal pipi, ikan susu and ikan sebarau.
“The mangrove ecosystem also supplies us with ketam bangkang (mud crabs), siput sedut (edible snails) and prawns but they have all disappeared now,” said Tanai.
She said the villagers now had to go out until Pulau Merambong, about 35km from their village and even right up to the maritime boundary between Johor and Singapore to fish.
“The sea is our livelihood and we are not used to other jobs like farming,” she said.
Another issue, she added, was that Orang Seletar youths were no longer interested in becoming fishermen and they preferred to work in factories and eateries.
Kampung Sungai Temon resident Leit Akon, 63, hopes Johor government will reconsider its decision to relocate the villagers to Kampung Orang Asli Pasir Salam in Ulu Tiram, Johor Baru.
She said word of the villagers’ relocation had been going around for the past four to five years as their village would be acquired to make way for a multi-billion-ringgit waterfront development project.
“Our village has existed for over 100 years and it is difficult for us to move to a new place,” said Leit.
Her family used to run a seafood restaurant at the village, but the place has been leased to two businessmen from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore since November last year.
“Our business was badly affected because of the Covid-19 pandemic and movement control orders imposed by the government,” she said.
Leit hopes Johor government will reconsider its decision to relocate villagers from Kampung Sungai Temon to Ulu Tiram.
Leit’s foster son Malik Sulong is against the relocation plan as it will affect the mussel farming project owned by 30 villagers.
Relocation means they will have to start all over again at the new place.
“The waters off Sungai Tenom is the perfect spot for mussel breeding and we do not know the water conditions in Ulu Tiram,’’ he said.
The 44-year-old fisherman suggested that the state government and other relevant authorities look at ways to turn Kampung Sungai Temon into an agrotourism village.
Malik said the four existing seafood restaurants in the village were popular not only with locals but also visitors, including Singaporeans and tour groups.
Orang Seletar are natives of the Straits of Johor separating Singapore from Peninsular Malaysia.
In the 15th General Election, the late Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub (Amanah/Pakatan Harapan) won the Pulai parliamentary constituency seat with 64,900 votes (33,174 majority) defeating Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed (Umno/Barisan Nasional) who garnered 31,726 votes and Loh Kah Yong, (Gerakan/Perikatan Nasional) 20,677 votes.
A by-election will be held for the Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram state constituency seats on Sept 9, following the death of Salahuddin on July 23.
Nominations are set for Aug 26, with early voting on Sept 5.
The shores of Kampung Bakar Batu Perling near a multi-billion-ringgit waterfront development project at Danga Bay in Johor Baru.
— THOMAS YONG/The Star
