Some of the fishermen who stage the peaceful protest.
BINTULU: Several members of the Sarawak Fishing Vessel Association Bintulu branch held a peaceful demonstration here yesterday asking the Sarawak government to review its decision to implement the temporary employment pass (PLKS) for foreign crew members.
Branch secretary Harry Tan Joo Seng said the whole process to obtain the working permit for foreign crew takes about five to six months which they said is too long.
During this waiting period, he added the fishing boat owners still have to pay the salaries of the crew members.
However without the working permit, the fishing vessels cannot go out to the sea because no workers are available during that six-month period.
“This is not good for all fishermen — the process is too slow and our vessels cannot operate without the crew members,” he said when met by reporters during the protest. Also present was its chairman Ling Tien Sing.
According to Tan, the PLKS documentations involved three main agencies namely the Fisheries Department, Labour Department and Immigration Department.
“We were told that the whole process will take about five to six months and during this period our fishing vessels will not be operational and this will cause a problem to all fishing vessels here,” he lamented.
The old system of recording the foreign fishing crew is based on the ‘seaman book’ that will be verified by the Fisheries Department.
Thus, he said the association urged Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg and the relevant agencies to come up with a system that can help the fishermen and not adding more problems and inconveniences.
“We hope the chief minister and the relevant agencies will study thoroughly this system so that it will be fair to the fishermen.
“It is not that we do not want to go out to sea, we have no workers now, they need working permit but it takes six months, we still have to pay their salaries, but how to pay if we cannot go out fishing,” he said.
The protest was held following an engagement session with the relevant enforcement agencies on Thursday by the Malaysian Fisheries Department.
Sarawak Marine Fisheries Department’s head of resource protection Donakaer Kasto Muning during the session said effective Jan 1, operators of fishing vessels who hire foreign workers must apply for the PLKS.