Approximately 200 Teluk Air Tawar residents and non-governmental organisation representatives in Penang today assembled in protest of the proposed relocation of the Butterworth Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Base and redevelopment of the area. 
 
Coalition of Penang Malay Representatives chairperson Mohd Rizuad Mohd Azudin, who led the assembly in front of the base in Butterworth, said the proposed project would force the local residents to be evacuated from the area which they had occupied for so long. 
 
"I was also made to understand that 13 villages in the area will vanish (with the implementation of the project)," Rizuad ( lef t) told reporters after the assembly, which was also attended by Teluk Air Tawar state assemblyperson Jahara Hamid.
    
Meanwhile, Penang Belia 4B Alumni committee member Ismail Yahya said the project, if implemented, would be a big loss for the country as the base was a very strategic location for national defence. 
 
"It should be properly maintained and not sold for the sake of achieving the personal agenda of certain quarters," he said. 
 
The 400-hectare RMAF Base was established in 1941, but has been proposed and approved to be relocated while the site to be redeveloped as Art and Recreational Centre under the joint-venture project between TSR Capital Bhd (51 percent), Armed Forces Fund Board (30 percent) and Pembinaan Bukit Timah Sdn Bhd (19 percent). 
 
- Bernama