Malaysia and China, page-35

Mahathir is very much like Deng Xiao Ping. ' The Middle East has oil. China has rare earths'. Maybe Mahathir wants the best of both worlds and thinks "We have oil. And we want to have Rare Earths too!". Mahathir is not going to swallow his words and went back from what he said earlier. In fact, you can see the status of rare earths in his mind as per highlighted in bold below. He sees rare earths is giving Malaysia a strategic power whereby Malaysia will 'reap the benefits from the existence of rare earth'.


http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/12/18/dr-mahathir-claims-lynas-plant-not-dangerous/

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed has agreed with the government decision to continue with the Lynas rare earth processing plant in Gebeng, Kuantan and disagreed with protesters that the plant was dangerous.
Condemning the action of protesters over the heavily politicized rare earth plant in Kuantan, he said the nation needed to accept that it was not harmful, and important for the country to reap the benefits from the existence of rare earth in the country.
“I think we need to stick to the fact that it is true that there are nuclear materials that are very dangerous and need to be handled carefully and with responsibility.
“Rare earth is not dangerous like nuclear… rare earth is not yet known to cause diseases among users of its end product,” he said in his speech at the Chemical Industries Council of Malaysia (CICM) Responsible Care Awards 2011/2012 dinner here today.
He said rare earth, used as a component for batteries and magnets, was a very important material for the electronic industry.
He said that the process undertaken at the Lynas plant was not a dangerous process and its safety had been assured by the world’s best expert and certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).