Free trips to Japan to avoid another Broga-saga?
Zakiah Koya, The Malaysian Insider
In what seems a strategy of using citizens to influence fellow citizens, the parties interested in putting up the much-opposed 1,000 tonne incinerator in Kepong have resorted to offering free trips to visit incinerators in Japan.
The trips were offered to representatives from selected resident associations (RAs) in Kepong and neighbouring Batu areas who are against the setting up of the incinerator.
This strategy was very much in line with avoiding another Broga incinerator saga where the people succeeded, via the court, in stopping Putrajaya from building an RM1.5 billion incinerator in 2003.
The government had to pay compensation to the Japanese company with some claiming it had cost hundreds of millions of ringgit.
The free trip was organised through the Malaysian Society of Waste Management and Environment (MSWME), an NGO closely linked with the National Solid Waste Management Department (JPSPN) under the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry. MSWME is headed by Universiti Malaya’s Professor P. Agamuthu, one of the main consultants for the Kepong incinerator project.
The Kepong incinerator project is one of the four planned to be built nationwide. The funding for the trips is borne by Japan International Cooperation Agency and Clean Association of Tokyo 23 (CAT23).
At a meeting with selected residents held at Universiti Malaya’s Faculty of Science last month, MSWME, CAT23 and Japan International Corporation Agency (Jica) officials said the trips would educate the RAs on how to manage waste. The whole itinerary of the trips, however, consisted of visiting incinerators.
Sources revealed that there were times when Jica and CAT23 came to support private Japanese companies in economic deals such as this.
Two weeks before the meeting, a group of MPs from both sides of the divide, as well as JPSPN director-general Datuk Dr Nadzri Yahaya and a columnist from a daily believed to be linked to Umno, were sent to Japan. Kepong MP Dr Tan Seng Giaw was also part of the group.
In an itinerary which was similar to that offered to the selected residents, the group was taken to four incinerators in the country. This did not include visiting the same type of incinerator which was to be built in Kepong.
When residents asked about the agenda behind the offer, Agamuthu and the Japanese officials were quick to say that there was none. This was despite the fact that all the residents invited to the meeting were selected based on their answers in a questionnaire on incinerators and waste management.
Agamuthu insisted that the generous offers were mainly “the kind efforts” by the Japanese to empower Malaysians to learn how to manage waste as efficiently as the Japanese.
He further stated that four RAs were the first group selected and that more RAs would be selected for such trips later on.
His assistant, Dr Fauziah Shahul Hamid, also of UM, and another person identified only as Sooria of MWSME, insisted that the residents take the trip with an open mind and said there would be no binding contract.
The paper which selected residents were asked to sign at the meeting. – The Malaysian Insider pic, July 8, 2014.
The residents were, however, asked to sign a paper stating that they would take part in the project. When some of the invited residents refused to do so and said they might have to consult their counterparts, the hosts seemed perplexed.
The Japanese officials also asked the RAs for specific details on population, area width and the race make-up of their areas.
When a few residents insisted that the Japanese waste collection and treatment methods were very different from that of Malaysia, the Japanese project manager who is also the key translator became flustered and apologised for having asked for too many details.
