Locals unmoved by town hall meet on rare earths plant
By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider
KUANTAN, April 6 — A forum to exchange views on the controversial RM700 million rare earth plant being built here quickly devolved into an impromptu protest against Australian miner Lynas Corp, with the pleas for calm from the government panellists falling on deaf ears.
Over 300 local residents squeezed into the town hall briefing organised by the Pahang State Development Corporation last night, but few came to do anything more than register their objection to the refinery which has raised concerns of potential radiation pollution.
“Yes, we are attending. We are mobilising as many people to send our message across,” a member of the “Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas” group of local residents told The Malaysian Insider the day before the gathering.
They fear that the plant, set to be completed in September, will be a repeat of the last rare earth project in Malaysia that has been linked to at least eight cases of leukaemia, seven resulting in death.
The plant in Bukit Merah, Perak, operated by Mitsubishi Chemicals from 1985 to 1992, is still carrying out a massive RM300 million clean-up nearly two decades after being shuttered.
The ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan after the recent earthquake has added to these concerns despite Lynas’s insistence that both its raw material and waste residue register a relatively miniscule amount of radiation compared to the Bukit Merah refinery.
At least three times, members of the floor asked for a show of hands to see who supported the plant. All three times, no arms were raised.
When the panellists from the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB), Department of Environment (DOE) and Nuclear Malaysia spoke, their repeated claims that public safety was a priority were greeted with sarcastic “oohhs” of feigned praise.
“I am on your side. I am trying to safeguard your interests,” was one such statement by AELB director general Raja Datuk Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan that was greeted in that manner.
This led to one member of the audience suggesting that there was no point engaging the various agencies further, and Kuantan locals should march right up to the mentri besar’s office instead.
Towards the end of the night, when Semambu assemblyman Datuk Pang Tsu Ming took the microphone to assure residents that the government would not ride roughshod over the concerns of the public, a middle-aged Indian confronted the MCA man with a long, finger-pointing rant.
When proceedings ended for the night, a large segment of the crowd left while chanting, “Stop Lynas!”
