Tanjong Bunga remembers the landslide victims

On 11 November around 50 volunteers answered TBRA’s call to remember the 11 landslide victims by planting trees at the site where they lost their lives.

Old and young residents came with hoes and spades to plant 30 trees on
Lorong Lemba Permai roadside. 

Quiet thanks to migrant workers whose families will miss them most. Also a reminder to their employers and to the Penang government that Tanjong Bungah residents expect them to compensate the families promptly and adequately.

The volunteers worked so well and so fast that all was done by 10 am. When the press arrived only few remained on the site. An official picture was sent to MBPP to show TBRA did its part in the Tree Planting event that took place all over the State.

---

Tanjong Bunga remembers the landslide victims

On 11 November, the Tanjong Bunga Residents’ Association (TBRA) will be planting trees at the site of the fateful landslide, which cost the lives of 11 men, all except one, migrant workers. “We have heard painfully little about plans to compensate the families in Bangladesh and Indonesia who lost sons, fathers, brothers as well as their source of income”, says Agnes James, Deputy Chair of TBRA.

Since the landslide happened in Tanjong Bunga, the residents want to commemorate the preventable deaths of these victims. Foreign workers, who build our houses, keep our streets and homes clean, are people, not just numbers, not dispensable statistics, now here and gone tomorrow. #

Our town wants to thank and remember them, wants to ensure their families far away are not forgotten and be given adequate information, recognition and compensation.

# The Star of 22 October listed 14 victims by name: 1 Malaysian, 1 Pakistani, 1
from Myanmar, 2 Indonesians, 7 Bangladeshis and 2 others, Jamal and Rahman of “unknown” nationality. 11 bodies were found. There were rumors that more workers were swept to their deaths by the sudden mudflow but no confirmation

A week later, a picture in The Sun, shows SOCSO handing a cheque for funeral expenses to the Malaysian victim’s mother. It also says his parents will receive a monthly pension of RM1062 for the rest of their lives. It says nothing, however, about the funerals of the foreign workers, nor of any compensation for their families. Don’t companies need to pay SOCSO for all workers they employ? AND surely, the company must pay its own compensation; SOCSO is just a small part ?