The Melaka Pig Fields War

So they are at it again. This time its the Government of the State of Melaka making an absolute fool of themselves

On Sept 4 malaysiakini wrote:

"All roads leading into Paya Mengkuang - about 30 minutes’ drive north of Malacca city - were cordoned off by the police, isolating the village.

Fifty of the police personnel stood by in plastic-suits, waiting for the state government’s order to move into the pig farms to kill the animals.

About 100 anti-riot squad personnel were also on stand by.

Six excavators had been brought in to dig mass graves to bury the dead pigs while six police trucks including some with water cannon were stationed in the vicinity.

On the other side were the villagers - men, women and children forming a human shield at the main entrance to their farms. The barricade included a number of small trucks."

and on Sept 5, Biggum Dogmannsteinberg wrote in Malaysia Today

"The 12-hour stand-off led to the Melaka State Government to rescind the pig-culling instructions without any explanation in the evening. The State Secretary was not available for comments, for the culling operation which saw over 2,000 authorities personnel in bio-hazard gear assembled at the Alor Gajah Town Council as early as 4.30 am this morning.

Despite repeated stern warnings, the pig farmers continued to breed more pigs than they were allowed to under the law. The Melaka State Government permits only 48,000 pigs to be reared but it is believed that the farmers in the area were rearing over 150,000 pigs. It is believed that Singaporean investors are behind the pig farmers. (The Chinese-majority Singapore Government bans pig rearing in the republic). The area is the largest illegal pig-farming commune in the country."

I havent seen the situation first hand but there is no doubt that major pollution of rivers has occurred and that the smell from these piggeries is unacceptable to nearby residents

My comments are as follows:

Pigs do not pollute... but pig managers do. Given the right conditions pigs are one of the most clean-living of all the domesticated animals. There is technology freely available to design piggeries and waste disposal systems that will allow pigs to be raised efficiently and profitably with NO POLLUTION

The Singaporean Chinese who are supposedly the evil masterminds behind this scheme can only think of one thing ... PROFIT. They apparantly dont give a damn about the welfare of their pigs unless it affects their profitability and they certainly dont give a damn about the residents who live nearby to their piggeries nor the rivers into which they discharge their effluent.

This is another example of the widely distributed DGAF syndrome that affects all aspects of life in Malaysia

But the real fault in this fiasco lies with the Government of Melaka. Their "repeated stern warnings" obviously weren't stern enough and one cant help but think there is the smell of something strange here and its not the smell of pig shit.

Basically, this is a matter of the Melaka Public Servants not doing the job they are paid to do. And to cover up for their inefficiency and incompetence they come up with the brilliant idea of slaughtering 100,000 pigs

Whoever thought up that idea must be totally insane