LANGKAWI – The 2,500 Rohingya and Burmese families in Bukit Malut should be relocated to an area with a sewerage system and accessibility to schools, healthcare, and food outlets.
Malaysian Nature Society’s Langkawi chapter chairman Eric R. Sinnaya said the current settlement lacks a sewerage system, and that the resettlement should be done humanely.
Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor last year said that the residents in the Bukit Malut settlement would be relocated as the land they are living on belongs to others, including the Malaysian Fisheries Development Authority (LKIM).
Bukit Malut is a special national security zone where in the 1980s, a United Nations amnesty programme was accorded to descendants of the Rohingya and Burmese communities, who fled the unrest in then Burma.
From just 500 families, the colony now houses about 10,500 people.
Sinnaya said some members of the community are Malaysians as they are born in the country, but they remained discouraged from mingling with the locals.
“Some of them have adapted to the local communities and are working in the hospitality sector.”
Although the majority work in farming, do contract work, or fish, he said some have been faring well in tourism-related enterprises before Covid-19 struck.
He also urged the state to disclose what form of development will take place in Bukit Malut.
Sinnaya said the civil society groups here hope that the state will embark on a sustainable development policy for Bukit Malut, taking into account the surrounding ecology.
“Excessive development will not cement Langkawi’s role as a premier tourist destination. People will boycott us if we forsake the environment. It has happened before.” – The Vibes, March 12, 2021
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