Selangor DAP today submitted a memorandum to Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting urging him, among others, to disclose the funding source of the multi-billion ringgit Broga incinerator project in Semenyih.

Led by the party's national publicity secretary Ronnie Liu, the group submitted a two-page memorandum this morning to the ministry's director-general Mohamed Saib who represented Ong who was held up at another meeting.

Liu, accompanied by several Selangor DAP leaders including Teoh Lib Peng and Ean Yong Hian Wah, said the director-general assured him that the memorandum would receive the minister's personal attention.

Last year, the Malaysian government has proposed to build a 1,500-tonne thermal treatment plant to dispose a daily average of 5,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste generated in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

Due to massive public protest, the project was relocated from Kampung Bohol in Puchong to Broga in Semenyih.

Since then, several memorandums were sent by various groups to the authorities concerned, including the ones from the Broga-Semenyih No-Incinerator protem committee to Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the housing and local government ministry .

However, these efforts not only failed to spark any positive feedback from the government but had incurred the wrath of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who made a stinging statement against opponents of the project in the recently concluded Umno annual general assembly.

High interest

In the memorandum submitted today, Selangor DAP said the government must reveal the source of funding for the project as the people have the right to know considering that they are the ones who will eventually " foot the bill " .

"The Japanese government, through its embassy office in Malaysia, has denied providing soft loans for the project. It would simply mean that Malaysians have to pay a very high interest and premium for the funding of the project," Liu submitted in the memorandum.

Liu said that the project is something that Malaysians can never afford considering it takes at least RM1.5 billion to build it and another RM50 million yearly to maintain it.

"In the end, this will push up quit rents and other utility bills thus causing a big burden to ordinary taxpayers," he said.

Liu also urged the ministry to terminate the contract given to Ebara Corporation, a Japan-based company, and instead adopt the zero-waste management method used by developed countries to resolve the ever-increasing rubbish load.

He said the whole world is now saying "No" to incinerators which have been responsible for discharging dioxin, a cancer-causing toxic agent, and in the interests of its people, the Malaysian government should follow suit.

Meanwhile, a 30-member delegation representing the affected residents submitted a memorandum to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tengku Adnan Mansor and Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister M Kayveas in Parliament this morning.

When to contacted to comment on the concerns raised by the residents, Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting said the government will investigate the allegations against Japanese-based Ebara Corporation for its alleged bad track record in the incinerator business