FOR the second time in as many weeks, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will have to decide whether his government is ready to live up to one its manifesto promises or risk side-lining more Pakatan Harapan voters.

The issue is whether to halt operations of Lynas Corp’s rare-earth refinery in Gebeng, near Kuantan, or at least, withhold its operating licence which expires on September 2. 

This is until the Australian miner provides a plan to remove and export low-level radioactive waste generated from its refinery out of Malaysia.

The promise to end Lynas’ operations was No. 39 on the PH manifesto ahead of the 14th general election.

“For the man on the street, this is an unacceptable U-turn and will reflect on the new government’s ability to honour its own promises,” said one of Lynas’ most strident opponents, Bentong MP Wong Tack.

The 60-year-old first-time lawmaker from PH component party, DAP, said the Lynas issue was more serious than the khat problem last week.

Although the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (LAMP) is 200km away from Wong’s constituency in Bentong, the Himpunan Hijau founder said it was hard to find anyone who wanted the plant to continue.

“My constituents are not complaining about it directly but everywhere I go, they tell me that they had either signed the ‘Stop Lynas’ petition or participated in the Green Walk,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Wong has opposed LAMP since it began operations in late 2012. In November that year, he led a group of 70 Himpunan Hijau activists on a 300km walk from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur to protest against the plant.

The walk finished with an estimated 20,000 people joining it before it reached its final point at Dataran Merdeka.

Undeterred by the previous government’s lack of action, Wong, who is now synonymous with the anti-Lynas campaign, also camped 36 days, from August 24 to September 2 in 2013, at Dataran Merdeka to collect “Bury Lynas” signatures.

“We finished with some 1.2 million signatures,” said Wong at his office in Bentong. 

“Never did I expect to be fighting the same issue seven years later, even after winning Putrajaya.”

Waste or no waste?

At the heart of the issue is how the LAMP should dispose of by-products of radioactive waste, such as thorium and uranium, said Wong.

“We are not against investments nor are we unreasonable, but why should our country be a dumping ground for radioactive wastes?”

Pointing to the now-defunct rare earth extracting company in Bukit Merah in Perak, Wong said 100ha had to be put aside in Kledang as a permanent waste disposal site for radioactive elements.

Although the company, Asia Rare Earth Sdn Bhd, closed in 1994 after operating for 12 years, there was an estimated 80,000 litres of radioactive waste stored in the Kledang range.

Since then, an estimated RM300 million has been spent moving the waste into the mountain’s core, 6m underground, below layers of clay and granite. The removal operations are still going on while the government has designated a 100ha buffer zone around it.

“Is it worth taking these wastes when we have to sacrifice so much land to keep them?” asked Wong.

When PH won federal power last year, Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin urged Lynas to honour its commitment to remove its water-leach purification (WLP) residue in Malaysia. 

It was reported that the Lynas site in Gebeng has up to 450,000 tonnes of WLP and 1.1 million tonnes of neutralisation-underflow residue (NUR). 

And although Lynas in June pledged to ship the wastes back to Australia, this did not materialise as the Western Australian government rejected its suggestion.

Investors deterred?

The cabinet is expected to discuss Lynas’ operating licence at its weekly meeting today. Last week, Yeo confirmed a news report quoting sources that a provisional extension for six months would be granted, pending another review. She said the cabinet would make an announcement by tomorrow (August 15).

The toughest hurdle now appears to be Dr Mahathir, who last week claimed that shutting down Lynas could deter investors. 

Apart from him, the only ministers reportedly in favour of keeping Lynas going are Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof and Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar.

“This doesn’t make sense,” said Wong of the claim that investors would be driven away.

“We are only rejecting Lynas because it hasn’t kept its promise to take back (its) wastes. And it’s also reasonable if we halt (its) operations because of this.

“So, why would it deter other investments if our reasons for stopping their operations are fair?”

Universiti Sains Malaysia political science lecturer Dr Azmil Tayeb said the government can’t have it both ways.

“Lynas is an issue Pakatan fought for many years and during the election campaign. It’s a promise its supporters expect to fulfil.

“This is a bitter pill it needs to swallow and not extend Lynas’ licence if it wants to salvage any credibility left when it comes to fulfilling its manifesto,” said Azmil.

The big question then is will Dr Mahathir have his way today or will the majority of the cabinet get theirs. – August 14, 2019.