PUTRAJAYA, Oct 15 — An executive committee has been set up to review the operations of the Lynas Advance Materials Plant (LAMP) in Gebeng, Pahang to ensure that Malaysia does not become a toxic waste dumping ground for other countries.

Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Yeo Bee Yin said the Cabinet on October 10 had decided that members of the committee would comprise those who had not openly stated their stand, either to support or protest against Lynas’s operations.

"This is to prevent any parties from questioning the credibility of the committee, due to the stand of some of its members (over the issue),” she said in a statement today.

She said the ministry had examined the list of committee members and found them all to be experts in their relevant fields.

The six members of the committee are Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI) research fellow Prof Datuk Mazlin Mokhtar; United Nations University — International Institute for Global Health visiting lecturer Prof Jamal Hisham Hashim; Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Unit director Prof Maketab Mohamed.

Assoc Prof Anita Abdul Rahman from the Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia; Universiti Malaysia Pahang’s Earth Resources and Sustainability Centre director Assoc Prof Muzamir Hasan and former director of the Hazardous Substances Division in the Department of Environment Malaysia, Datin Paduka Che Asmah Ibrahim. — Bernama