By Sheridan Mahavera - The Malaysian Insider
ALOR STAR, March 19 — Kedah has had its share of grand “vision” plans, thought up by a succession of ambitious mentris besar, to turn its modest economy into a regional powerhouse to rival Penang’s.
Those plans and the politicians who dreamed them up are gone and forgotten. However, the promises of those plans, of providing better jobs and a better standard of living, still light up the eyes of most Kedahans.
This time, there is no grand plan but a massive fuel processing and refinery project in Yan district that could transform the landscape and lives of tens of thousands of people in one of the state’s major rice-growing areas.
Part of the project involves building a two-train refinery that will sit on a 340 ha plot of reclaimed land on the coast near Sungai Limau, a tiny town surrounded by huge swaths of verdant padi fields.
It is being called the Sungai Limau Hydrocarbon Hub (Sulih).
The other part, which is currently on hold, is building a 300km oil pipeline that will snake through Kedah, northern Perak over the Titiwangsa main range to Bachok, Kelantan.
It could potentially bring in RM200 million a year for the Kedah government and create up to 3,000 new jobs.
It is not just the scale of the project that has people excited and some worried. Once completed, the refinery would turn what is now a rice bowl area, into a heavy industrial zone.
The residents of Sungai Limau, especially those who will live in the shadow of the refinery, are now contemplating the hard adjustments that they will have to make. They will have to make the transition from their now sedate kampung existence to the hurly-burly of city life.
More importantly, they are worried that they will not see a sen from the millions in spin-off revenue from the food outlets, shops and smaller industries that will mushroom around Yan.
“LARGEST IN SOUTHEAST ASIA”
Past reports state that the US$10 billion (RM36 billion) refinery venture is being spearheaded by Merapoh Resources Corp Sdn Bhd, who had inked an agreement with the Kedah government in July 2009.
The project also involves Chinese state oil company China National Petroleum Co (CNPC).
Merapoh executive chairman Md Nazri Ramli has been quoted as saying that foreign companies would also be roped into the project. So far, two companies, Hong Kong Beijing Star Ltd and Winson Investment Ltd, have pledged US$5 billion for the project.
About 30 per cent of works, such as building tank farms and pipe-laying, will be awarded to local contractors, Md Nazri said.
“We will build a 20km pipeline going towards offshore Kedah for offloading of crude oil and loading of refined oil. The refined products will be ferried, using tankers, to consumers in East Asia, particularly China,” he said.
The refinery will be able to process 350,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
It was also reported that Merapoh has tied up with CNPC under a 20-year deal in which the Chinese oil company will buy the bulk of the plant’s output and market the rest.
An Alor Star-based contractor says the project is being widely anticipated by local construction firms.
“The business community is really excited. There’s a lot of spin-off projects that will be on offer such as roads, piping, residential units, commercial lots that locals can get in on.
“The project itself can create 3,000 jobs but there will thousands more from the service industry that will spring up to serve the refinery,” says the contractor who declined to be identified.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS
Abdul Rahman Mat Ali is ambivalent about Sulih. To the 44-year-old, it can go the way of the Kerpan Tiger Prawn project, a massively hyped venture in Air Hitam under a different state administration several years ago that incurred huge losses and slighted many locals.
He has also had his share of disappointments recently with a hawker centre in Bandar Putri that was supposed to benefit locals but in the end went to outsiders.
“The local council built the hawker centre in front of where mine and a few other stalls were operating. Naturally we thought the centre was to provide a better space for us but when we went to enquire, the council said all the lots had been taken up.
“So the locals got snubbed in a place which they themselves had established. I’ve seen it happen before and I hope this project won’t be like that,” says Abdul Rahman, gesturing with his thumb towards where the refinery is going to be built.
His village, Kampung Sungai Kering, faces the beach where presently, pontoons are measuring the depth of the sea bed to prepare for reclamation works.
Abdul Rahman is used to hearing about mega-projects that were all hype and no substance.
The same beach, which faces Pulau Bunting, was also where a previous Kedah mentri besar wanted to build a coastal highway from Kuala Perlis to Kuala Muda.
An ex-mentri besar after that one had wanted to build a coal-fired power plant on reclaimed land between Pulau Bunting and the village. And then the plant changed from coal to wave powered. And then the mentri besar got changed.
Ch’ng Chuwn Leong of the Central Kedah Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Indusry is also sceptical of Sulih’s supposed benefits.
“They talk about producing 3,000 jobs when it’s ready. All the companies under the Kedah Chinese Chambers of Commerce produce that many jobs per year but how come no one talks about us?
“The jobs themselves, they might be white-collar professional positions where the expertise comes from out of state. Or they might be created over a period of several years.”
“This town will never be the same”
Kak Teh, as she wants to be called, sells drinks, keropok lekor and goreng pisang to the scores of anglers who swoop in to cast their lines off the bridge linking the mainland with Pulau Bunting.
Her business is heavily dependent on them but she sees a chance to expand if the refinery brings more workers to the area. She also thinks of her three primary school-going kids who presently horse around their mother’s stall but who will be leaving school at about the same time the refinery is ready.
“Maybe there will be better jobs for my kids and more opportunities for me,” she says. Many of the state’s youths leave Kedah to look for jobs with higher wages in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor every year.
Kak Teh sounds optimistic despite having been conned in the past by men, who took advantage of the same expectations she had about another project with “big spin-offs.”
She was tricked into investing RM14,000 into a so-called canteen that was supposed to serve workers building the same bridge where her stall presently operates.
“They knew I was in the food business and came to my house. They sounded very convincing. But now I know to be more careful with my money,” she says not wanting to dwell any more on the past.
A short walk from Kak Teh’s stall is a small eatery run by Rodziah Murad.
“When that project comes up, our lives will change. This whole area will turn into a ‘taman’ (housing estate) with shops and places to do business.
“There will be no room for villages on this side of Sungai Limau,” says Rodziah, 48, who also hails from Kampung Sungai Kering.
Rodziah echoes fellow villager Abdul Rahman’s worry about locals not getting any of the project’s benefits but there is another concern.
“This whole area is traditionally a rural area. Once it changes the people here will also have to change and adapt to an urban lifestyle. Otherwise, they’ll just have to pack up and leave and that will be hard.”
The Alor Star-based contractor acknowledged that for the padi-growing communities of Yan, the changes that are about to happen can be disorientating. And for some, the benefits can pass them by.
“At the end of the day, a farmer who owns a small plot of padi has to decide whether it is more profitable to keep planting it or to cash it all in by selling to a developer.
“All I’m saying is that for the business community in Kedah, this project can have a huge impact if it happens.”
But, of course, the key phrase here is “if it happens.”
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