I think it’s worth putting here in full,
LETTER Malaysiakini today:
What exactly do we want from Lynas?
Hafidz Baharom
17 Oct 2018, 2:07 pm
This question needs to be addressed fully by this government before it plans to move ahead on the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant.
The MP of Kuantan Fuziah Salleh is now saying that the Lynas plant in Gebeng must bear the responsibility of its employees should it be made to shut down.
She goes on the Bernama News Channel and says that there is concern regarding dust and radiation pollution from the plant affecting the health of 600,000 people in Kuantan.
Let’s go through some history – according to Lynas Corp’s website the rare earths production plant had been commissioned in late 2012 and has been operating at 75 percent since 2015. It employs 600 locals in its operations.
The company has gone out time and time again to assure the public that its operations are clean, even to the point of inviting people to tour the plant themselves to assess the safety of their operations. Thus, we do need to ask a few questions.
When Fuziah says that it is unsafe, where is her proof? Has there been an increase in illnesses reported in Kuantan due to the operations of the Lynas plant?
Or, is she linking the bauxite mining, red earth spilling operations to Lynas as well? Because, while those operations are supposed to be under a moratorium, are they really not operating or shipping red earth on the highways via oil palm estate roads?
And in fact, isn’t this the dust and air pollution that continues to plague Kuantan and most parts of Pahang, with alleged 100 mines without permits? Has this been measured and compared to the Lynas plant?
Furthermore, are there any measures whatsoever to say that the plant is producing more pollution than any other industrial operation in or nearby Kuantan?
Is Kuantan not also getting the so-called air pollution from the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park, which has a steel plant, producing 3,000 tonnes annually? Has there been a comparison between the pollution of smelting steel, compared to the production of rare earth?
If the Kuantan lawmaker is serious about looking into the health effects of the Lynas plant on the 600,000 people in her district, then has there been any move to stop the steel manufacturing plant, the trucks carrying red earth, and of course the review of Lynas plant, all at once?
No, there has not. In fact, the actions being taken on the Lynas plant, to the point of having a ministry establish a committee to review its effects on the environment, are discriminatory. So let us just admit that the only reason Lynas is being forced to go through this is because of the fear-mongering done during the election period, and nothing more.
It is not about air pollution, or about dust particles, nor about radiation. It is about fear.
And surely, if we were so concerned about air pollution in this country, then the Ministry of Energy, Environment and Green Technology would have teamed up with the Ministry of Transport by now to have every single car, express and heavy-duty transport and construction vehicle on the roads pulled over for an emissions test.
But we don’t see that, do we? So perhaps the government should drop the act that it actually cares about “pollution” and “the environment”, when it truly cares about just being seen as doing something to preserve its image as a “green government”.
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