Bukit Pelanduk's ex-pig farmers have urged MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik to visit them and see for himself the real situation in their village - Ground Zero of the devastating Nipah viral outbreak two years ago.

"As MCA president, Ling has never visited this place," lamented one of ex-farmers, PC Lai.

They claimed that Ling did not visit Bukit Pelanduk at the height of the Nipah crisis nor meet with the farmers and seek to understand their hardship.

"He keeps asking us to change jobs, but it is difficult to do," said Lai.

The farmers were relating their plight to malaysiakini during a recent trip to Bukit Pelanduk.

According to them, some farmers who had ventured into other activities such as fish rearing, failed. As a consequence, the money they invested into these new business ventures was also lost.

On top of that, the farmers still need to repay the bank loans they took in their previous investments in pig farms before the outbreak.

The Negri Sembilan state government has remained firm in its stand to ban pig farming in the area although other states, including Selangor, has allowed the industry to resume.

Instead, the state government wanted the farmers to relocate to Jimah - a new pig farming area - at a price of between RM145,000 and RM180,000 for each acre of land.

Best solution

Meanwhile, pig-farming infrastructure in Bukit Pelanduk - with investments up to RM500 million - is now left idle.

The Bukit Pelanduk farmers feel that the best solution to their woes is to lift the ban on pig-farming in Negri Sembilan and allow them to revive their pig farms their village.

According to Lai, who is also the vice-president of the Nipah Virus Disaster Rescue and Liaison Committee, most of pig farms in Bukit Pelanduk have high standards of hygiene.

He added that the Nipah virus, which had devastated the industry and killed more 100 people, originated from Perak, not Bukit Pelanduk.

However, to allay public fears, the committee suggested that the state government allow several bigger and modern farms to be reopened first and monitor the situation there before permitting other farms to resume their operations.

The pig-farming industry in Bukit Pelanduk was the biggest in Southeast Asia before the outbreak. The numerous 'exporter farms' located in the area catered for the Singaporean market and notched up to RM450 million in foreign exchange for Malaysia annually.

Left jobless

With the pig-farming industry in Bukit Pelanduk dead, most pig farmers - who are middle-aged and not highly educated - were left jobless.

"We're lowly educated and have no skills. How can we compete with others?" said Tan Ah Leck, aged 49.

"We only want our livelihood back," said another pig farmer. "We are in our 40s and 50s. Which factory wants to hire us?" he asked.

Meanwhile, many youngsters who used to help out in the farms have packed their bags and left in search of greener pasture. Some went overseas, most to Singapore.

However, like their elders, many are not highly educated, too.

"I went to Singapore to find work but I don't have the qualifications. I have to come back," said Guo Meng Sun, 36, from Site C of Bukit Pelanduk.

"They need at least Form Five (qualifications), but we only have Form Three," he lamented.

No viable options

The farmers explained that while there has been much publicity on the financial help given by the government, nothing practical was actually done to assist them.

The farmers conceded that the families of the Nipah victims were compensated with RM25,000 each from the MCA JE fund. However, there are no long-term measures to bring them out from their current hardship.

Those who lost their jobs as the result of the outbreak were not offered many viable options apart from the RM5,000 relocation fee from the MCA fund as well as the much-disputed government JE Trust Fund.

As one farmer put it, "The money we have received is not enough to repay our debts."