DEPUTY Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail today defended Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof for speaking out on the value of the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP).

She said the cabinet will have to weigh between investment interests and environmental concerns when deciding on the renewal of the plant’s operating permit.

“As an entrepreneur minister, he wants investments and entrepreneurship. For the environment minister, the concern is about environmental impact.

“So on the Lynas issue, the cabinet must weigh between investments and economic empowerment on one side, and on issues of environment and pollution on the other side,” she said at the Parliament lobby today.

She was commenting on Redzuan who was ticked off by Kuantan MP and anti-Lynas proponent Fuziah Salleh after he spoke up for the rare earth processing plant in Gebeng when it was not under his portfolio.

Earlier, Redzuan said Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin’s directive to Lynas to fulfil waste-removal conditions before its operating licence could be renewed was “her own opinion”.

Any final decision on the renewal is up to the cabinet, he said.

Wan Azizah said Redzuan did have a say over investments and that the disagreement between the ministers and with the Kuantan MP was “a healthy debate on how to solve the problem”.

“The issue is, they must remove the waste,” she said.

She added that the cabinet would wait for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to consider all aspects before making a decision.

The US$800-million LAMP began operations in 2012.

Its latest three-year operating licence is up for renewal, and Yeo’s ministry wanted it to export waste out of Malaysia, which Lynas is refusing to do.

A bipartisan caucus of MPs, meanwhile, disagreed with Redzuan and sided with Yeo’s ministry.

“We stand firmly in support of the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry’s stand on the management of residual waste (Water Leach Purification and Neutralisation Underflow Residue)…that LAMP must show its action plan on how to manage the waste. 

“We are disappointed with the statement by Lynas CEO, Amanda Lacaze, that Lynas has no capacity nor the intention of removing these radioactive wastes out of Malaysia. They have violated the letter of undertaking between Lynas Corporation Ltd Australia and Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd dated February 23, 2012 and March 6, 2012, which states that commitment (to waste disposal),” said a statement signed by seven Pakatan Harapan MPs and two opposition lawmakers.

They said MPs are not against foreign investments but have to fulfil their duties as elected representatives to protect the people’s safety from environmental damage.

The MPs in the Lynas caucus are Wong Tack (PH-Bentong), who is also its chairman, Nor Azrina Surip (PH-Merbok) who is deputy chairman, Hasanuddin Mohd Yunus (PH-Hulu Langat), Maria Chin Abdullah (PH-Petaling Jaya), Wong Shu Qi (PH-Kluang), Chan Ming Kai (PH-Alor Star), Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka), Hasbullah Osman (BN-Gerik) and Awang Hashim (PAS-Pendang). – April 3, 2019.