Local fishermen in Malaysia are facing a dilemma — to come with the boats to the petrol kiosk for fuel or obtain permits to transport the fuel.
Some l00 fishermen in Bagan and surrounding fishing villages, about 13km from here, have been facing this problem since 2010.
Two years earlier, they could obtain the fuel at a petrol kiosk here and transport it in containers on vehicles to their villages without the permit.
Currently, about 30 boats have to line up at Sungai Batu Pahat for the fuel and they can only enter the river at high tides. This causes serious congestion on the river.
Muar-Batu Pahat Fishermen’s Association Bagan branch assistant secretary, Tan Ching Hing, said that fishermen had to travel 26km to and fro for up to three hours to get fuel.
He said the petrol kiosk operators refused to pump fuel into containers if the boats were not present, and they would not allow the containers to be loaded on vehicles without a permit from either the Police, Road Transport, Customs, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, Fisheries, Fisheries Development Authority or petrol kiosk.
Tan said the time wasted in obtaining fuel affected the livelihood of fishermen who could not find enough time to mend their damaged fish traps and nets and also attend to their families.
“Our Association will submit an application to the seven authorities for the permit and hope the authorities concerned will not enforce the ruling while the application is being processed.”
Muar-Batu Pahat Fishermen’s Association president Ser Boon Huat, said the petrol kiosk operators practised double standards in allowing operators of trawling boats to cart away containers without permits.
Ser said the government has to initiate various programmes and incentives to rejuvenate the fishing industry as the catch has dropped more than 50 per cent in the last five years. He said a study by the Association last year revealed that this was due to the presence of trawlers operating illegally in Muar waters.
Ser said as the catch was poor, many youths left for cities to seek greener pastures. He called on the relevant authorities to waive the permit on vehicles transporting fuel to fishermen in the villages or to set up more petrol kiosks in villages where there was a concentration of fishermen.
New Strait Times, 2011