A petrochemical complex project rebuffed by Taiwanese two years ago is proving equally unpopular among residents of Pengerang, Malaysia, some of whom have traveled to Taipei to voice their opposition. The visitors said the Taiwanese government should not “dump your unwanted garbage in somebody else’s homeland.”
Members of the Pengerang NGO Alliance and three Johor State legislative assemblymen, accompanied by members of the Changhua Environmental Protection Union and Yunlin County Shallow Waters Aquaculture Association and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), protested outside the Presidential Office yesterday, pleading for Taiwanese to be aware of the problem and asking for a response from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co, in which state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan, has a large stake, turned to Pengerang, a small town at the southeastern tip of Malaysia, after its bid to build its eighth naphtha cracker on the coastal wetlands in Changhua County was rejected.
Ee Chin-li (黃俊歷), one of the Malaysian assemblymen, said the environmental impact assessment for the petrochemical project is now in its final stage and while Kuokuang’s investment plan has been in place since 2011, it was not until the beginning of this year that the Malaysian government confirmed the project.
“But the land reclamation and the making of oil fuel tank for the project had already been completed by then,” he said.
“The Malaysian government has to be held responsible, but we would also like to ask President Ma, as [the leader of] the exporting country, to help halt the project,” assemblyman Tan Hong-pin (陳泓賓) said.
“We reject the entry of industries undertaking high pollution-generating and energy-consuming activities,” Tan said.
“Malaysia is not a dump for Taiwan’s wastes,” acting chairman of the Pengerang NGO Alliance Chua Peng-sian (蔡平先) said. “What the residents want is sustainable development, not pollution.”
“More than 3,600 ancestral graves and four temples of local Chinese descendants are to be leveled for the project, some of which date back hundreds of years,” Tan said.
Chua said the grave removals was a disgrace to the world’s Chinese descendants.
Just as Taiwanese environmentalists worried about the threat the complex would pose to the endangered humpback dolphins off Taiwan’s west coast, their Malaysian counterparts say the endangered dugongs inhabiting Malaysian coastal waters and lobsters that thrive off Pengerang would face a similar plight once the petrochemical industry put down its roots.
After Kuokuang’s project was ousted from Taiwan, “is it then okay for it to go to Malaysia to continue polluting the planet?” Tien said.
“People have to rethink the meaning of petrochemicals, as the supply of petroleum is waning, and the health hazards the industry brings about are immense,” she said.
Tien asked for CPC Corp’s to immediately divest itself from the project. She said the corporation should be thinking about the development of renewable energy technologies.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by