Bernama 8 Jun 08;
The Malaysian government should develop the island, he said, adding that it was strategically located at the centre of shipping route to the Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Tanjung Bin power generation plant and Asia Petroleum Hub, as well as to Singapore's Tuas industrial area.
JOHOR BAHARU, June 9 (Bernama) -- The area around Pulau Merambong, once a fertile fishing ground for Gelang Patah fishermen, are no longer so following actions by patrol boats from a neighbouring country.
They said even though Pulau Merambong is located within the Malaysian maritime border, the authorities from the neighbouring country had been stopping them from fishing there, especially at night.
"Even though we know that we are inside the Malaysian water, based on the buoy markers, they will still chase us away, claiming that we are going too close to their border," a fisherman from Kampung Pendas Laut, Mohd Rosli Abu, 58, told Bernama Monday.
He claimed that personnel onboard the patrol boats had, on many occasions, asked that he produced his identification card when they saw him fishing at night near Pulau Merambong.
Mohd Rosli said the personnel onboard the boats claimed that they wanted to check whether he had crime records, before returning the card to him.
"Sometimes they maneuver the patrol boats too fast near my boat, almost capsizing due to the waves they created," he said, adding that the move was part of the effort to chase him away.
The unoccupied Pulau Merambong, located near the Malaysia-Singapore border, is 10 minutes by boat from Tuas in Singapore and about 30 minutes from Gelang Patah in Johor.
Another fisherman, Tarmizi Jailani, 46, said the aggressive actions by the patrol boats from the neighbouring country had caused the fishermen to shun away from the fertile fishing ground.
"By 7pm the fishermen will already begin to leave the area as they are worried of being harassed by those patrol boats," he said.
Nusajaya state assemblyman Datuk Abdul Aziz Sapian urged the Malaysian authorities to conduct more patrol around Pulau Merambong.
"We receive numerous reports of fishermen being harassed by patrol boats from the neighbouring country even though they are fishing within the Malaysian waters," he said.
The Malaysian government should develop the island, he said, adding that it was strategically located at the centre of shipping route to the Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Tanjung Bin power generation plant and Asia Petroleum Hub, as well as to Singapore's Tuas industrial area.
-- BERNAMA
