Swiftlet operators are up in arms against the Penang government for cracking down on their businesses, but the latter denied that it was trying to kill off the farming activity.

NONE State exco member for local government and traffic management Chow Kon Yeow ( left ) said that the authorities want swiftlet farm investors to continue the lucrative business at appropriate approved zones.

Investors should realise that if George Town is taken over by birdhouses, the city would be turned into a ghost town, which would threaten the capital of the state.

“In short, the future of George Town is at stake,” said Chow after chairing the Local Government Consultative Forum in Penang today.

“When swiftlets move in, people will move out, taking their trade with them when our forefathers have worked so hard to create this city,” he added.

“Who would allow the future of George Town to be compromised?” he asked.

Chow was responding to a group of 50 swiftlet operators who staged a demonstration along Komtar Walk on Friday, protesting the state’s ongoing move to get them out of George Town.

They accused the  state of trying to kill off the swiftlet industry, lamenting that “Heritage in whatever form are still dead things, only people have lives”.

Pengkalan Kota BN coordinator Lim Poh Chye has questioned why swiftlets were allowed in Sarawak’s Mulu National Park and not George Town when both are heritage sites.

One of the operators, Tan Siew Teng, said he believes the Unesco office could have been “ill-informed” through certain poison-pen letters on the situation here.

penang pulau pinang old heritage pre war buildings 160307 Earlier, Chow had said that the state had received a letter from Unesco warning the authorities to buck up on the enforcement of bird’s nest farming in the George Town heritage enclave.

Unesco’s main concern was whether swiftlet farming in the heritage area would affect the character of the pre-war shophouses that formed part of the city’s “outstanding universal value”, he said.

Unesco was concerned that swiftlet breeding would cause residents to move out of the area, thereby negatively impacting the multi-cultural heritage there, Chow said.

He also said that by moving into approved zones, swiftlet farm investors would see their investments secured and sustainable in the long term.

Investors should not risk their investments by putting up swiftlet farms in unapproved zones as they would face enforcement action for failing to get the required planning and building approvals from the local councils.

Revise strategy, swiflet farmers urged

Chow urged swiftlet farmers to revise their investment strategies in line with the federal government’s decision to stop the activity in the World Heritage Sites of Malacca and George Town, saying they should adopt the National Guideline for Swiftlet Farming.

“By lobbying intensively against the decision to stop swiftlet farming in the George Town World Heritage Site, investors are expecting the wider interest of the state and people to be sacrificed so that their narrow interest can be protected,” he said.

“By asserting that heritage in whatever forms are still lifeless dead things, their lack of understanding and appreciation of Georgetown has been exposed,” he added.

On a related matter, Chow responded to Lim, a local MCA leader, by saying that his assertion was made due to sheer arrogance by compared the Mulu caves with George Town.

Chow said Mulu Park was a natural heritage while George Town is a living one, and swiftlets belonged to the realm of nature.

“Just because swiftlets are found in Mulu, a natural heritage site, it does not mean they should be allowed to breed in the living site of George Town,” Chow said.