96% of villagers against refinery project, Azalina told

The Pengerang Residents Action Committee today rebutted BN parliamentarian Azalina Othman’s claim that only 200 villagers attended the rally last Sunday, held to protest the Petronas’ oil refinery project in her constituency.

The residents committee also refuted Azalina's (left) claim that the protesters were all foreigners.

According to the committee’s chairperson Kasran Abdullah, their survey conducted last November in seven affected villages showed that 96 percent of the villagers were against the Petronas’ Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project.

He said the committee had collected over 1,600 signatures of respondents who were against the project and will submit the list to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in a form of memorandum.

About 1,000 Chinese and 600 Malays made up the total number of signatures.

“The signatures were collected just from the heads of the families, not from all the villagers and they don't include their children,” said Kasran (left), who is also an Umno member, when contacted byMalaysiakini.

The demonstrators last Sunday had protested against national oil company Petronas’ plan to set up a gas refinery in Pengerang, as well as Dialog Group Berhad’s plan for a deepwater petroleum terminal.

The villagers are concerned that the RM60 billion Rapid project would pollute the environment, and particularly affect deep-sea fishing activities.

Yesterday, Azalina told Parliament that the protesters wereforeigners, based on vehicles which were carrying foreign number plates.

However, Kasran brushed aside Azalina's claim, saying that most of the protesters were local residents.

He said there were only “one or two” Singapore cars present during the protest but the owners were from Pengerang.

“They are locals, they are working in Singapore, their fathers also live here,” he added.