PENANG transport and infrastructure committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari, in defending the Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project, said it is a critical project for the state’s future.

So, destroying a thriving, self-sustaining, age-old food producing industry and replacing it with manufacturing industries – a future that is not guaranteed, and does not ensure food security, is considered “critical” for the state’s survival.

What sort of strange thinking is this?

What could be more critical than food security for the future, growing population in a world where current food supplies are already unable to give every human on earth three decent meals a day?

Factories come and go. They are mercenaries looking for their own gains. Their products are not real necessities, but mostly for satisfying artificially created “wants” by the factory owners. People can survive without factory-produced products, but they cannot survive without nutritious food on the table.

That factories provide jobs for large number of people is not a valid reason to destroy a long-established, self-sustaining, fresh seafood producing industry in the south of Penang island.     

Is the Penang government blind and deaf to the tragedies that have befallen similar grandiose projects in Malacca, Dubai, and elsewhere?

Seafood is cheap protein for a large number people and the state authorities have the cheek to say it is critical to destroy the inshore fishing fields to the south of Penang.

Dear Penangites, do not be mesmerised by the sweet talk and beautiful illustrations of the grandiose “development” that will destroy forever the rich source of the fish that you throng the markets to buy daily.

Do you want to be able to buy fish and other seafood at reasonable prices, or at exorbitant prices when the supply drops drastically due to the reclamation works?

Politicians come and go. They can make all the wrong decisions and not be accountable for them. Look at the number of white elephants around, the failed projects. They just want to mesmerise people to get their votes.  

Bury the PSR project, not the rich fishing grounds. – November 25, 2020.

* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.