SPECIAL REPORT The idea of foreigners flooding the country at the expense of Malays has often been a bogeyman played up by Umno, and this has helped the party maintain its firm grip on power in the country.

However, with this bogeyman becoming a reality in Umno's home state of Johor, the party now appears conspicuously silent.

This comes despite a declaration by Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Ismail Sultan Iskandar, that Singaporeans living in Johor will mark the way forward for the state.

"Once the (Johor-Singapore) links are in place, it will become the norm for Singaporeans to live in Johor and work in Singapore. That is the future," the monarch said in an interview with The Star last week.

In dismissing the possibility of a property glut in southern Johor, Sultan Ibrahim used London as an example, where he said 80 percent of properties are owned by foreigners.

Southern Johor is seeing unprecedented development, many of which are being spearheaded by giant developers from China. And, one of the largest projects there is Forest City.

For Forest City alone, its Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) estimates that some 300,000 people will live on the newly created islands to be reclaimed in the Johor Straits by 2045.

Johor now has a population of 3.5 million.

Likewise, Country Garden Pacific View (CGPV), the developer of Forest City, in a briefing last week said the international demand will help resolve the issue of a property glut.

Conflict, friction and bitterness

"Our target is the global population, not just the local people. They can be Singaporeans or Chinese from China... we open it up for the international (market)," CGPV executive director Md Othman Yusof said during the briefing.

Md Othman also drew parallels with Dubai City, which he said managed to generate migration to sustain the city upon its completion. About 85 percent of Dubai's population today is made up of foreigners.

The Forest City's DEIA acknowledged the "enormous" social impact the project would have within the new community, as well as on the existing local populace.

"Considering the fact that the majority of the new residents there will be outsiders, the magnitude of the social impact will be enormous.

"The impact can be further exacerbated if a large number of this new population is made up of foreigners.

"A large number of people living together with different social, economic and cultural backgrounds may cause social and cultural conflicts and friction," the DEIA report states.

The report also noted the possibility that the local people may be left out from reaping the benefits of the Forest City development.

"If this happens, the local communities will feel marginalised and alienated.

"The bitter feelings can be further aggravated, considering the new residents coming in will have a better economic standing than the locals," the report says.

There are some 11 villages in the vicinity of the Forest City project, with a significant community of fisherfolk, who are already feeling the brunt of the reclamation works.

Fishermen's way of life under siege

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a written reply to Parliament on Wednesday he expects the earnings of the 1,023 inshore fishermen being affected by the Forest City and Tanjung Piai Maritime Industrial Park projects to be reduced by 50 percent.

Prior to the reclamation works in 2013, the inshore fishermen there, most of whom are Malays, had already been earning average income at a meagre RM1,151 to RM1,842 a month.

Ismail Sabri said the loss of income was because the fishermen now had to travel farther away to fish.

The Forest City DEIA report also noted that the area has been the "usual fishing grounds for the local fishermen as it is very rich in marine resources", but it went on to add that the project would result in "permanent loss of fishing grounds".

The report added that aquacultural activities in the vicinity of the project may also be affected.

"Most of the fishermen do not have other incomes and their wives are mostly home-makers, which make them highly dependent on fishing to survive.

"The fishermen may lose their source of income should any deterioration of water quality and marine life occur," the DEIA report states.

In the briefing last week, CGPV's Md Othman said fishing was no longer allowed in the project area and that compensation totalling RM3 million had already been handed out to the local fishermen's association for disbursement.

Asked whether the company was looking beyond a one-off compensation to the local communities, Md Othman said the fishermen could engage with CGPV if they wished to remain as fishermen and venture into deepwater fishing.

The price of silence

Furthermore, he said, training would also be provided to the local population so they they can find jobs in the Forest City project.

"On and off, I myself personally go to the area to meet with the village chiefs. We don't want our development to overlook the locals.

"We have even given them advice to the point of telling them not to sell their land now. If people offer to buy, do keep the land, because definitely land in the surrounding areas will appreciate like nobody's business," Md Othman said.

For companies like CGPV and many other giant developers in the region, it is a matter of fulfilling their obligations as set out by the authorities, so that the projects can move ahead.

However, these projects will change the social fabric of southern Johor and its impact will be left to the politicians to deal with.

None of the political leaders have dared to speak up and outspoken Johor PKR chairperson Hassan Karim attributed this to the fear they have of the Johor state ruler.

The monarch holds a more than 20 percent stake in CGPV and has also sold parcels of land in other parts of southern Johor to developers from China.

"No one dares to say that the sultan is involved in these projects… nobody can check him," Hassan told Malaysiakini .

He was just as critical of his own coalition on this matter, criticising Pakatan Rakyat for only taking up technical issues in the DEIA, and “failing to call a spade a spade”.

Ultimately, Hassan added, all leaders in Johor would be held accountable for what finally becomes of the state.

Yesterday: Of the Johor sultan and the dugong

Related stories:

Part 1: The case of Forest City and the Johor sultan 

Part 2: Johor crown prince a top millionaire at age 30

Part 3: Of reclamation, sand and the royal company

Part 4: Royal businesses: Who is Daing A Malek?