THE BROGA EXPERIENCE

The Broga New Villagers

The villagers are the real fighters. They had no high education, no access to resources like the urban professionals, but their will and determination to fight for their rights, to protect their homeland had finally convinced and brought in people from near and far to work out an enduring struggle against all odds. The village head and the committee prefered standing on the Government side favoring the Incinerator. They formed a special committe including the local assemblymen, village heads, local councillors and the ruling parties' chiefs. Despite all shorts and pressure the villagers moved on. They went to the Prime Minister, DoE, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, State Chief Minister and finally went to court seeking for the last hope even though with not much confidence. With the help from NGOs, NGIs, political parties like KeADILan, PAS and DAP, the people went on non-stop campaigning, lobbying and protesting thru leafleting, signature campaign, talks and holding donation dinner. Among those leading the struggle are Alice, Gan, Jason, Zulkifli, Ronnie Liu etc. My role is more of mobilisation and coordinating NGOs besides doing research into legal process and government document review.

The Media

The media especially the Chinese media and the electronic media such as Malaysiakini and Merdeka Review had played a vital role in keeping the issue hot and getting the public well informed. Hence, the struggle gained support locally and overseas. The media indirectly was helping in lobbying and campaigning. Eventually, these helped pressured the government to rethink the feasibility of constructing the Mega-Incinerator, especially at a location which was declared by the state government as forest reserves,watershed and highly sensitive area.

Besides the media, there is a group of sweet ladies led by Julin,Yin San,Mei Chern etc who produced a documentary named " Alice Lives Here". The short film narrated the struggle of the Broga folks against the arrogant authority and the monsterous Mega-Project. The documentary won the Human Rights Award and caught attention of a wider public. This effort is worth a thousand praise because at the latter stage, the main stream media had black-out whatever news considered 'negative ' by the authority.

Finale

After a long march(5 years) by the Broga people and other concerned groups, the government finally cancelled the Incinerator project. A victorous win by the People! A great thanks to everybody and lets march on in protecting the victimised and marginalised.