Lynas Corporation Ltd, a giant Australian mining company, had incurred the wrath of all concerned citizens of Malaysia. It has built a RM700 million rare earth plant, the biggest in the world, in Gebeng Industrial Zone, some 20 km north of Kuantan, in the east coast of Malaysia, to process ore mined in Mount Weld, Perth, Western Australia.
Rare earths are crucial to the manufacture of high technology products such as smartphones, hybrid cars and bombs. But processing rare earths will generate a large amount of radioactive waste called thorium. Long term exposure to thorium will result in complicated health problems such as leukemia which will eventually lead to death and the rise in the number of babies born with birth defects to mothers living in close vicinity to the plant.
Toxic waste thrown into the South China Sea facing Kuantan will destroy the rich marine life beneath the sea. The north eastern monsoon wind will carry poisonous particles to the whole of South East Asia region, affecting neighboring countries like Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines too.
Similar repercussions were seen in Bukit Merah, a small village near Ipoh in 1986 when a rare earth plant was built there by a Japanese company amidst protest from the villagers living there. It had closed down since but the impact could still be felt even until today.
Lynas Corporation Ltd was given a temporary operating license by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board of Malaysia despite overwhelming protests by the residents of Kuantan. In view of this, a mammoth rally was organized by the angry residents and concerned environmentalists called Himpunan Hijau 2 (Green Rally 2) in Kuantan this morning from 9.30 am to 12 pm to demand the shutdown of this toxic plant. Come Malaysians, walk for a good cause, walk for Mother Nature. But be prepared to face brutal backlash from the authorities!
Next Tuesday, 28th February, the citizens of Malaysia will file a legal suit against Lynas Corporation Ltd in the High Court of Kuala Lumpur. Be there if you can to stand in solidarity with Malaysians against this injustice.
We, citizens of Malaysia, demanded clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. We don’t want our babies to be born deformed. We do not want our people to suffer from leukemia too.
So, go home, Lynas, go home, you are not welcome here. You are not wanted on our soil, now or anytime. Malaysia is our home, not a toxic dumpsite. We do not want another Chernobyl here. Our lives are as precious as those in Australia. Please, pack up and stop polluting us, will you?
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