Some people just don’t know when to abide by the referee’s decision and get on with the game.
Despite the fact the residents’ appeal against the Lynas Rare Earth Plant has been dismissed, despite the fact that the mining company has agreed to the extra safety measures imposed by the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry and despite the fact today’s Parliamentary Selected Committee report will give the operation the all-clear, the most militant opponents are still not accepting the verdict.
The Kuantan residents led by PKR MP Fuziah Salleh say they will do whatever they can to further stall the project and will even resort to the Australian courts.
This is set to exasperate the Government, which has done everything in its powers to review and then re-review the proposed operation that could earn RM5 billion per year.
It set up the PSC which staged months of public hearings involving independent experts from around the world, leading PSC Chairman Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin to declare it “the safest rare earth plant in the world.”
The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry imposed two additional conditions to the five that had already been met by Lynas as part of its Temporary Operating Licence.
Lynas will now have to install a back-up system to trap the low-level radioactive elements produced and will also have to install extra back-up for the sprinkler system to ensure dust remains supressed.
The experts are now wondering what more they can possibly do to convince their most sceptical opponents.
But the fact is, as many observers of this long-running saga now know, it isn’t about convincing anyone. Many Lynas opponents will never change their views no matter what eminent scientists say.
What chance the local PKR MP Fuziah Salleh uses Lynas as her re-election effort? Given Pakatan’s total lack of readiness for the coming election, playing role of environmental campaigner could be her best campaign weapon as she vies for another term as an MP.
Opposed Kuantan residents won’t change their minds because they have been led astray by professional agitators including professional environmental activists flown in from Australia and a misinformation campaign that has led many residents to believe the facility is a nuclear reactor.
It is nothing of the sort. It is a mineral processing facility involving radiation levels that are the same as those emitted by a cathode ray television.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told protesters in February that a Pakatan government will close the plant if it wins GE13 despite the fact that would mean the biggest government compensation pay-out in history to a company that has already invested hundreds of millions in this country.
As is now common with Anwar, naturally he hadn’t actually thought through the financial ramifications of his promise when he spoke. In Anwar’s world, such vacuous populism is what substitutes for proper, responsible leadership.
PAS meanwhile gagged its own scientist, Dr Che Rosli Che Mat, when he dared to say the plant is safe. Dr Che Rosli has a PhD in Nuclear Physics and is better qualified to give such a verdict than any other politician on either side of politics.
DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng was invited to sit down with Lynas and have the operation explained to him in detail but he made as much political capital out of the offer as he could before theatrically rejecting it.
Last month Lynas Corporation chairman Nicholas Curtis took to the Australian press to accuse Malaysia of moving the goalposts. He said having made a 30-40 year investment in this country, the rules are being changed with more and more hurdles placed in front of his company.
His words must have made painful reading for those in the Prime Minister’s department who have spent the past four years telling the world that this is a country that welcomes foreign investment.
But thankfully, all this will be forgotten if we now get on with making Malaysia one of the most important producers of rare earth metals in the world. In the process we will be striking a blow for the security of our tech industries that rely on these materials which are now overwhelmingly controlled by China.
With the Lynas end-game upon us, it’s time for everyone to calm down, accept the referee’s decision and play by the rules.
Source: The Choice
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