KICKING out rare earth miner Lynas Corp from Malaysia will not spook foreign investors as feared by the prime minister, said DAP assemblyman Ronnie Liu.

The Sungai Pelek rep said in a statement that other foreign investors are not like Lynas which generates radioactive waste and discards them here.

“He (Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad) is wrong. Other foreign investors are not like Lynas. They do not produce radioactive waste and dump them in Malaysia,” he said.

“Lynas broke its agreement to get rid of its radioactive wastes. That is why we want to kick them out,” he added.

He said that foreign investors “are not stupid or ignorant”, and that the spooking investors argument cannot justify Lynas continuing its operations here.

“Foreign investors are not stupid or ignorant. They know that. So please don’t use the ‘spooking foreign investors’ argument to try to justify keeping Lynas here. Nobody is buying that.”

Dr Mahathir had earlier said that kicking out Lynas would spook other foreign investors,

He also sarcastically said he would in the future consult Liu before making any decisions.

“That was my view. I didn’t ask him. I should have asked him first before I spoke,” he said.

Dr Mahathir had said that Malaysia could not force Lynas to leave after inviting it to invest here.

“We invite them (to invest) and then we kick them out. Others will say the country made a promise but when there is a problem we kick them out… we cannot do that,” the prime minister told the press recently.

“If we chase out Lynas, the others (foreign investors) will not come.”

The Australian rare earth mining firm has invested RM1 billion in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin recently said although the decision on Lynas is less than ideal, it’s far better than status quo.

“That may be true but ‘better than the status quo’ was not what we promised the voters,” said Liu, who is a DAP central executive committee member.

Some members of the ruling coalition are angry at the government’s decision to make a U-turn on Lynas.

Halting Lynas’ operations in Gebeng, Kuantan was one of Pakatan Haparan’s election promises. – August 12, 2019.