About 1,000 coastal fishermen here, in Kuala Penyu and Bongawan fear losing their lucrative earnings of between RM400 and RM1,000 per day once the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) in Kimanis is fully operational in 2013."Petronas is undertaking the project which I believe would develop the oil and gas industry in Sabah," said Papar Area Fishermen Association (PNK) Chairman, Abu Bakar Jamil.
"Actually, we are not against the mega development that will benefit the local communities here, the State and the whole nation.
"But we have been rather disappointed and very worried when the Petronas informed us that a 200km radius of the project will be gazetted as a restricted zone and that coastal fishermen would be prohibited from fishing and trawling for prawns in the area.
"We were told the bad news after former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launched the SOGT project in Kimanis Bay, about 65km south-west of Kota Kinabalu, about four to five years ago," he said.
Disclosing this to Daily Express here on Monday, Abu Bakar said the SOGT area is a thriving ground for marine species and therefore attracted many of the coastal fishermen.
At the moment, he said, the fishermen here can still patronise the SOGT project site.
"We have met Petronas officials, like few years ago regarding the directive prohibiting our members to catch fish and prawns in the SOGT area.
"But the response they gave to us was that the issue is still under studyÉand until now there is no action or decision taken to address our plight," he said.
Abu Bakar lamented that the coastal fishermen feel Petronas and the relevant authorities are not taking their welfare and livelihood seriously.
To a question, he said the PNK Papar hopes Petronas and the authorities will conduct a dialogue with the affected fishermen to come up with a solution that will benefit both parties.
"Petronas did propose to pay the concerned fishermen some kind of compensation for our income that will be seriously affected by the project.
But until now, there is no official decision on the proposal.
"What we hope is that the relevant authorities especially Petronas will carry out the project based on the 1Malaysia concept: People's First, Performance Now," he said.
On another issue, Abu Bakar appealed to the government to approve funding for a proposed project to deepen the river mouth of Papar River, which has become shallow.
He said several of the fishermen's boats had even sunk in the river mouth.
"In fact, Pantai Manis assemblyman Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail had also proposed this project to the Federal Government through the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry to provide the funding when he was the Malaysian Fisheries Development Board (LKIM) Chairman last year.
"I was made to understand that Rahim applied for RM1 million for the river mouth of Papar River to be deepened. And we in PNK Papar are appealing to the government to expedite the funding," Abu Bakar said.
On performance of the PNK Papar, he revealed that the association reaped a profit of RM70,000 in 2010 which was double its profit in 2009. - www.dailyexpress.com