MP urges authorities to beef up enforcement at sea
MIRI: The authorities are called upon to beef up their enforcement at sea to safeguard the interest of the maritime community and marine life due to encroachment by foreign fishermen.
In making this call, Sibuti MP Ahmad Lai Bujang asked: “Why do we need to allow fishermen from Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines to catch fish in Sarawak waters as local fishermen are ever ready to undertake the task?”
“The late Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem had urged the authority concerned to beef up their enforcement agencies so as not to burden the local fishermen community and they must go the ground and do so,” he emphasised during the 38th annual general meeting of Miri Fishermen Association at the Civic Centre here recently.
Present was Miri Fishermen Association chairman Cr Jamali Basri.
Ahmad Lai stressed that those given licence to catch fish in the sea must not engage foreigners to do fishing for them as there were some reports that these foreigners were using licensed fishing boats to catch fish at sea here.
As a solution, he suggested that all local fishermen be given the licence to fish in the sea so that they can go out to sea without fear of being caught.
“Give the fishermen licence so that they can go out to sea to fish without fear of being stopped or arrested because fishing is their main source of income to support their families and livelihood,” he said, while urging the authorities to be flexible in issuing licences to fulltime fishermen.
Earlier in his speech, Ahmad Lai urged fishermen to be united under the association so that they have a strong voice to champion their interests.
He said they were fortunate as the government was providing a lot of assistance to the fishing community to uplift their living standard.
Later, he handed education grant to children of the fishermen who are members of the association.
In his speech, Jamali claimed that there were still foreign fishermen in Miri even though the situation was under control.
He said these foreign fishermen brought many problems to local f ishermen and appealed to Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, Marine Police, Marine Fisheries Depar tment and Immigration Department take appropriate action against them.
To ensure that local fishermen can fish in the sea, he sought assistance from the Marine Fisheries Department to issue licences to them, especially those with small boats for fishing in the coastal areas.
He thanked Ahmad Lai for giving a grant of RM5 000, Bekenu assemblywoman Rosey Yunus for giving RM5,000 and Lambir assemblyman Ripin Lamat for giving RM5,000 to the association to run its activities.