POISON Malaysia ... You die, they Laugh, Happy !
Dr Mahathir Mohamad supports rare earth processing plant in Pahang because his eldest son Mokzhani has a stake in the project.
Anwar calls for movement against Pahang rare earth plant
Anwar: This issue is important but the public is generally not well-versed in the negative effects. I propose we prepare leaflets to be distributed.
The massive earthquake in Japan yesterday and the resulting tsunami has also added fears about the plant in Malaysia’s east coast which faces the Pacific Rim’s ring of fire, the world’s active volcanic region. The 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan and the 10-metre high tsunami it sent surging into cities and villages, sweeping away everything in its path.
Australian mining company Lynas Corporation has begun construction of the rare earth refinery in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s home state, raising fears of a repeat of the radiation pollution in Bukit Merah, Perak that has been linked to at least eight leukemia cases in the local community there.
The Asian Rare Earth plant is now the subject of a quiet US$100 million (RM303 million) cleanup exercise by Mitsubishi Chemical which shut down the facility nearly two decades ago.
“This issue is important but the public is generally not well-versed in the negative effects. I propose we prepare leaflets to be distributed,” the opposition leader wrote to his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) colleagues in an email this week.
Anwar, who is facing a second sodomy charge in 12 years, has been going around the country for ceramahs to promote his PR’s economic programmes and promises in its Buku Jingga for the next general elections, widely expected to be held this year.
The New York Times reported this week that the refinery in Gebeng, just 70 kilometres north of Najib’s Pekan constituency, will be the first such plant outside China in nearly three decades.
Environmental hazards have made other countries wary of rare earth processing, leaving China to control 95 per cent of global supply of rare earth metals.
The metals are crucial to high technology products such as the Apple iPhone, Toyota Prius and Boeing’s smart bombs.
The newspaper said that if prices of the metals stayed at current levels, the Lynas plant would generate over RM5 billion a year in exports for Malaysia, or nearly one per cent of its entire economy.
However, Lynas corporate and business development vice president Matthew James has denied that the plant will be dangerous and told The Malaysian Insider that radiation will be minimal as the raw material used has only 2 per cent of the thorium found in the material processed in Bukit Merah.
Thorium is the radioactive element found in nearly all rare earth deposits.
PKR vice president Fuziah Salleh, who is also Kuantan MP, responded saying that a local group of citizens has been trying to raise awareness there and has echoed Anwar’s call to drum up the issue.
PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Tantawi has also questioned the need for theplant to be located in Gebeng, some 2,500 kilometres away from Lynas’ mine in Mount Weld, Australia.
“Are the wide deserts of Australia not enough to build this factory if it is really safe as they say it is?” said Nasrudin.
James had told The Malaysian Insider that the company chose Malaysia instead of refining the ore in Australia, due to savings in already available infrastructure and labour.
He said that the plant would need a larger supply of water, natural gas, industrial land and chemicals such as lime and sulphuric and hydrochloric acid — all readily available in Malaysia.
“Each container contains about US$1 million (RM3.04 million) of rare earth so the transport cost is negligible,” James said.
James also said that the Kuantan facility, located in the Gebeng industrial area, will be the largest rare earth processing plant in the world once completed next year.
I have spoken up on the Lynas rare earth plant in Pahang on numerous occasions. It appears that the government, both state and federal, is insensitive and stubborn. The ruling regime has refused to listen to the people and their fears.
It appears that even the Australian people do not want the radio active waste being shipped back to their own backyard. Worse, a friend pointed out that we are giving a 12-year tax exemption to the operator of the plant. This is another example of arrogance of power.
It appears to me that Barisan wants to lose more elections and more states before it can eventually wake up from its slumber. I am not surprised if they might even lose the state of Pahang in the next general elections if this issues is not addressed.
Which is more important, ketuanan Melayu or health? Ask the Malays in Pahang especially Kuantan and they will be able to give a straight answer.
Get wise!
Do we need to sound so desperate? Is the acceptance of Lynas investment regardless of the health risks shows that we are no longer attractive to productive and knowledge based investors?
Think it over please!
Immediately after the Japanese tsunami and the Fukushima incident , I wrote about the need to review our planned rare earth plant in Pahang. This was what i wrote then:
While the whole world is now worried about the safety of nuclear plants, after an explosion in one and a possible meltdown in 2 other, I thought it would be wise for anyone, even those eager to see a nuclear plant in Malaysia, to think twice. Or at least wait till further development to see whether the Japanese can contain the nuclear problemsand how serious this would turn out to be before commenting.
But our minister in charge of our planned nuclear plant has immediately announced that Malaysia would continue with our planned project, without even wanting to wait out further development in Japan. I thought this is really unfair to the people of Malaysia. Not only that, this is also politically unwise to announced this when the whole world is worried about possible nuclear fallouts. I thought a more sensible approach would be to suspend and review any nuclear project that is being planned. We should also take another look at the planned rare earth factory in Pahang.. No planning by man is foolproof. Mother nature has shown it clearly in this case. A country as advanced as Japan is facing potential nucelar meltdown, and we really do not know how bad is the situation, or whether the government there is really transparent in its disclosure..
Many months have passed, and the rare earth project is still being carried out,.
Some may say that there is minimal risk to radiation exposure. Some may argue that we may get more radiation travelling in a plane.
The truth is there is no such thing a a minimal level of safety where radaition is concerned. Prolonged exposure of even low dose radiation is known to cause health problems, radiation risk being cumulative.
I have then written another article and this is part of the excerpt:
The simple question is : if there is no risk at all to set up a rare earth company, why didn't the company set this up in Western Australia, near to its source of extraction? It would have saved millions in shipping cost.
The fact that it has not obtained approval by the authority to set up such a plant in Western Australia ( which has a vast area of unpopulated land), and it has to set up a plant thousands of miles away from its source of extraction speaks plenty for itself.
If Western Australian authority is concerned about radiation risk, why shouldn't we be too?
If the safety features of the plant cannot ensure the issuing of a license to operate in Australia, why are we giving a license? Is our standard of safety lower than that of Australia? Are we so hard up on foreign investment that we are willing to risk the health of our people? Isn't that contrary to the slogan "People first"?
Is the life of a Malaysian less precious than that of a resident of a developed nation?
Germany has become the first country to slowly wean itself of nuclear plants. many countries are reevaluating their energy needs and reviewing nuclear options.
It would be prudent for our country to cancel the project or at the very least , shelf it.
Malaysia has already had a bad experience previously in the Bukit Merah Asian rare earth plant. A US$ 100 million claen up project has been instituted there, after complaints of birthd ecfects and many cases of leukamia in a community which has no seen any leukaemia cases before.
When Chernobyl was built, residents around it was assured that it was safe. Similarly, when Fukushima plat was built, people was told that it was very safe. But like the proverb "Man proposes, God dispose", what was safe turned out to be not safe at all. In chernobyl, it was attributed to human error. In Fukushima, it was an act of God.
I have previously mentioned that we cannot be sure that in a Malaysian plant, we would not have any human error.
As a person who has a master degree in occupational medicne and safety ( in fact, my master's desertation which obtained a distinction was used as teaching materials for other masters students ), I can say for sure that there will definitely be human error no matter how careful a person can be. Human nature is such that we are influenced by emotions, illnesses, boredom and our attitude, and any of these factors can cause accident. A moment's inattention or absentmindedness often result in accidents in work places, not matter how strigent is the procedures for safety.
In fact, the cardinal rule in occupational safety ( and safety in general) is to remove the hazard whenever it is possible. Only when removal of hazard is not possible, then only we would think of instituting safety measures and work procedure to minimise the risks of that particular hazard.
Just to quote an example in safety: if there is a protusion on the floor of a corridor, which may cause tripping whenever people walk along that corridor, it is best in safety measures to remove the protrusion.. Only when the protrusion cannot be removed, a safety specialist would think of other ways like erecting a warning sign to warn about the hazard (in this case, the hazard is the protrusion), or undertake remodelling work to make the protrusion into a gradual rise and gradual fall. This is the first principle in safety: remove the hazard.
In the case of Lynas, the hazard is the rare earth, so the safest way is to remove the rare earth; it follows that we should not allow rare earth to be imported and processed.
This is not a political issue; rather an issue of safety which has social implications. If we are a responsible government, we should really pay attention to the concerns and fears of the people staying around the area; these are real.
So i hope sane minds will prevail, and there is really no hurry set up the plant; Malaysia does not need this type of Foreign investments which are potentially harmful.
Y
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