MCA vice-president Ng Yen Yen today found herself ‘ambushed’ by an angry group of villagers from Bukit Koman, Raub while campaigning for Barisan Nasional in Hulu Selangor.

NONE The villagers are her electorate as Ng is the Raub MP. They are upset over the use of cyanide to extract gold at a lake next to their village and took their plight to Ng ( centre) , who was in Kuala Kubu Baru today.

During their heated argument, some 30 members of the Bukit Koman Anti-Cyanide Committee argued that the gold mining operations are endangering the health of the villagers.

“Its already been a year since my father passed away!” yelled one enraged committee member towards Ng.

Ng tried to calm the group and claimed that she has never tried to avoid them and had acted on their complaints.

She claims her efforts prompted Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office T Murugiah, who heads the Public Complaints Bureau, to investigate the villagers' claims and their concerns were found to be inaccurate.

NONE However, Ng was cut off by the committee members who then challenged her to a debate. Ng refused to commit because she said the villagers were “threatening” her.

The trading of barbs lasted for 20 with the committee members walking off in disgust after failing to obtain any commitment from Ng.

Ng: It’s a political ploy

Speaking to the press and Kuala Kubu Baru folks later, Ng claimed the commotion was the result of instigation by Tras assemblyperson Chong Siew Onn of DAP, MCA’s bitter rivals.

She claimed that Chong was attempting to “cause trouble” for her solely for political reasons and used this to stir local resentment against Pakatan Rakyat.

“We are Chinese! The Chinese must support MCA. You saw how they bullied me just now,” she said.

NONE Ng also denied that she had ignored the Bukit Koman villagers' pleas and said that the Health Ministry and Natural Resources and Environment Ministry had giving the mining operations a clean bill of health.

“Cyanide is poison, but it also depends how much you use; even cigarettes contain cyanide,” she said, assuring that the gold mine was safe.

Committee shows proof

Earlier, the committee held a press conference of their own to voice their dissatisfaction over Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s claim that the committee was “lying” over their health concerns.

Committee secretary Mustapha Hussin said statements from top government officials appear to contradict the findings of government departments.

"This is the report from the Pahang Department of Environment which states that one of the chemicals they are using is sodium cyanide," he said.

He also cited a report by Sahabat Alam Malaysia which showed that only eight villagers did not suffer health problems while 283 others complained of skin and eye irritation and breathing or sleeping difficulties.