KEDAH Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor wants the National Security Council to help in the relocation of some 5,000 residents from their special security zone in Bukit Malut in Langkawi to proper coastal housing estates.
He said that the state has issued countless pleas in the past five years, but the request has apparently fallen on deaf ears within the Home Ministry.
Stressing that the majority of the residents there are not Rohingya, which is contrary to speculations, Sanusi told a press conference that the residents' ancestors were originally from Kedah and they were part of the migrant flow, who over time resettled in southern Myanmar before requesting to return to Malaysia.
Some ancestors of the community were also forcibly taken to Myanmar as part of the Death Railway workers, who then escaped and stayed on in a nation previously known as Burma.
A population survey by the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) revealed that 92 per cent of some 5,000 residents hold Malaysian identity cards.
In a special operation in the 1980s, the community was relocated from Myanmar back to Kedah and allotted federal agency land at Bukit Malut in Langkawi for their resettlement programme.
Sanusi, who confirmed this, said that the Home Ministry has a role to play in the safe relocation of the community into proper housing areas, but it must be beside the coastal areas, as the majority of them are fishermen.
He said that the residents there are part of the island resort's thriving ecosystem, with many working in the civil service and the travel trade industry, including as workers in hotels and restaurants.
"Let us not discriminate against them. They are not Rohingya, and they are originally part of Kedah," said Sanusi.
In another matter, Sanusi said that Langkawi remains an integral part of the country's tourism sector, contributing an annual revenue of RM8 billion to the leisure industry coffers.
To overcome the present shortfalls, Sanusi said that the main factor is the inconsistent ferry trips due to the siltation at both Kuala Kedah and Kuala Perlis.
The Transport Ministry must step up the effort to dredge the riverbed off both coastal fishing townships and allow the ferries to ply more frequently there, or find alternative locations for the jetties, he said.
"By improving the ferry connectivity, more domestic tourists can frequent the island resort."
Langkawi must also have an identity of its own and its own attractions when comparing it to the likes of Phuket (Thailand) or Bali (Indonesia), said Sanusi.
"We want Langkawi to stand on its own strength and not be a carbon copy of other destinations," said the PAS Elections campaign director. - August 12, 2026.
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