http://www.thesundaily.my/news/841994Posted on 29 September 2013...

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/841994


Posted on 29 September 2013 - 12:08pm
Last updated on 29 September 2013 - 08:56pm

Dorothy Cheng
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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 29, 2013): More than one million Malaysians have signed environmental group Himpunan Hijau’s public petition against the Lynas rare earth plant in Kuantan after about 60 days of the group’s campaigning.

Himpunan Hijau chairman Wong Tack said this is the first time a campaign like this in the country have received such level of support, which included 37 days of camping at Dataran Merdeka.

“As of this morning, we have achieved 1,062,000 signatures with the 1,000,000th signature registered on Saturday at 11.45pm. It was a truly jubilant night,” Wong said.

“The message is clear: the people of Malaysia will no longer tolerate the operation of Lynas. This also shows that the ruling regime has ignored the demands of the people at their own peril,” he said.

The “Bury Lynas with 1,000,000 signatures” campaign was launched on August 1 and was intended to be completed within 100 days.

Wong said the petition will be used to lobby the Japanese and Australian community – countries with the most investors funding the Lynas plant – and to put pressure on the operators of the plant to shut it down.

“We will show the petition to the Sultan but not to the other leaders of the nation. We want to go to the ordinary people,” he said.