FEBRUARY 17 — The decision to stop Lynas from carrying out any cracking and leaching activity from July onwards is five years late and still does not solve the problem.
As of May 2019, Lynas has piled up 580,362 metric tonnes of radioactive wastes in their backyard. Today, it stands at 1.08 million tonnes and will reach 1.2 million tonnes by July.
Pakatan Harapan’s failure to keep to their promise to shut down Lynas when they took power in 2018 has resulted in half a million tonnes more of radioactive wastes dumped on our land.
Two days ago, the Mosti minister extended Lynas’ licence for another three years. That means PH has allowed Lynas to dump an additional 120,000 metric tonnes of radioactive wastes on our land. The minister even expressed that Lynas can appeal for extension after July. What a joke!
The biggest problem with Lynas’ operations is there is no safe solution for their massive amount of radioactive and toxic wastes.
But our governments, from BN to PH to others and now back to PH have renewed Lynas’ licence again and again although there was clear non-compliance of licensing conditions.
One of the original conditions set was Lynas has to identify its PDF location within ten months after the issuance of their first licence in 2012.
Instead of taking a long overdue action against Lynas for not complying with this condition, PH graciously gave Lynas another six months to do so.
When Lynas proposed Bukit Ketam as the site for their PDF, many NGOs and experts immediately warned that it is water catchment area for the people of Greater Kuantan. All these warnings fell on deaf ears and in year 2020, the minister bulldozed through a three-year licence extension for Lynas.
Persistent protests from the people after that resulted in another PDF site chosen.
This time Lynas proposed to permanently dump over a million tonnes of radioactive wastes next to their plant in Gebeng which sits on a sensitive coastal area, next to a fishing village in close proximity to hundreds of thousands of people of Kuantan. The people protested, but again fell on deaf ears. Lynas was given the greenlight by the government.
Two days ago, the new Mosti minister extended Lynas’ licence for another three years without any review of the site which is clearly unsuitable nor putting any efforts to find a way to make Lynas fulfil their original legally binding commitment to remove their radioactive waste from Malaysia.
The new PH-led government must take the Lynas issue seriously. The new Mosti minister, who once stood together with the anti-Lynas movement must exercise his ministerial duty by making firm decisions with the people and our land at heart.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
