‘Pakatan will shut down Lynas’
Lynas’ admission that it will not ship out rare earth waste is an opportunity for the BN government to cancel the plant in Gebeng, says Lim Guan Eng.
By Lim Guan Eng, FMT
The DAP demands that Barisan Nasional should stop the operation of Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) now or four Ministers should resign to take full responsibility for failing to fulfill their own promise that the rare earth waste will not remain but be exported out of Malaysia.
BN’s insincerity and lack of commitment to make public health and safety the utmost priority follows a recent admission by Lynas’ Managing Director, Mashal Ahmad that no residues from Lamp would be exported out from Malaysia.
The admission by Mashal contradicts the seven-paragraph joint ministerial statement on Feb 22, 2012 by four ministers whose portfolios are directly associated with Lynas’ application to set up and operate the plant.
The four ministers, namely International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamad; Science and Technology Minister Maximus Johnity Ongkili; Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Unggah Embas; and Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai, said as follows:
“Prior to the issuance of the Temporary Operating License (TOL), Lynas shall submit a letter of undertaking that it will accept a return of any residue generated by its factory in Gebeng to its original source.”
Lynas’ admission that rare earth waste will remain and not exported out of Malaysia presents a rare opportunity for the Malaysian government to cancel the Kuantan rare earth facility for breach of compliance without needing to pay compensation.
Mashal had confirmed that Lynas have no plans to export the rare earth wastes because Lamp needed to abide by international conventions which prohibit the export of toxic wastes to overseas countries.
Earlier, the Australian government has repeated that they will not take back the radioactive waste.
Clearly Lynas’ managing director has shown that this is an empty BN promise and another example of “Janji Tak Ditepati”.
Condition unfulfilled
Only by revoking Lynas’ temporary operating licence (TOL) or issue a stop-work order until the Permanent Disposal Facility (PDF) proposed by Lynas can save the credibility and the jobs of these four ministers.
