MP SPEAKS The people of Kuantan are naturally disappointed with the decision of rejecting the appeal made by three Kuantan residents to overturn the temporary operating licence (TOL) issued to the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB).  

NONE The decision was made by Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Maximus Ongkili in a letter sent to their lawyer yesterday.  

The decision was nothing unexpected. However, it clearly shows that the current regime under Najib Tun Razak has not been listening to the people, despite the people's protest.

Under normal circumstances, if the Lynas plant was not harmful to the people's health, the people would not want to come out under the hot sun to stage a demonstration. The fact that they did, showed clearly that the people have voiced their grave concerns over the way the government handles the Lynas issue.  

If Lamp were to operate in Australia, using the license issued to Ashton Rare Earth Company (license issued in 1992) which Lynas later acquired together with the license, Lynas would have to comply to 41 commitments.

bersih 3 rally 180512 02 stop lynas One of which is sending the radioactive waste back to the origin of the ore at Mt Weld. In fact Lynas can only keep the waste on the refinery site for a maximum of eight days.

This is to account for bad weather. Otherwise in normal circumstances, the radioactive waste is transported back to once produced. The  tanks that transport the ores to the refinery plant is also tasked to transport radioactive waste back to the mine.   

Instead of insisting on a concrete long term radioactive waste management plan, the minister has instead written two other requirements which appear to be too general in nature, and would not be able to assure the people that radioactive contamination would not occur on the site or elsewhere.

NONE This is aside from the 10 other requirements laid out by IAEA upon Lynas which are still being questioned by the public.  

In the present circumstances, given no choice, the people in Kuantan who are affected may have to take the matter further to court. The people of Kuantan will not give up that easily. As long as the  lives  of people are affected, we will continue to fight.  

In fact it  may even end up like the Scorpene case in a foreign court. I am  not discounting the fact that the Kuantan people may have to pursue civil suits in the Australian courts against Lynas. This, however, will be done only after the issue cannot be resolved locally.

FUZIAH SALLEH is MP for Kuantan.