PM Najib: Pakatan should join Lynas PSC for the public good

By Yow Hong Chieh

March 21, 2012

PUTRAJAYA, March 21 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) should participate in and not boycott the parliamentary select committee on Lynas for the people’s good, the prime minister said today.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak (picture) said he failed to understand why the federal opposition had chosen to stay out of the panel as there were many issues that needed to be tackled by both them and the ruling coalition.

“This is for the people. It goes beyond partisan politics,” he told reporters here after launching Silinder LPG 1 Malaysia (SL1M).

Putrajaya announced that it would set up a parliamentary select committee on the Lynas rare earth plant in Kuantan, which has stoked fears of radiation pollution.

It seeks “scientific and factual” feedback from stakeholders like regulators as well as other relevant groups, and will deliver its findings to Parliament by June.

The decision to set up the panel came after months of fierce opposition to the project from PR, civil society groups and the public.

Many thousands of anti-Lynas protestors attended an opposition-backed rally by Himpunan Hijau last month in the largest protest yet against the refinery, which is expected to fire up later this year.

Critics allege that Lynas Corp has failed to give enough assurances on how it will handle the low-level radioactive waste that will be produced at the plant, 25km from Kuantan city centre.

But the Australian miner maintains that waste from the Gebeng plant will not be hazardous and can be easily recycled for commercial applications.

The committee on Lynas was approved in Dewan Rakyat yesterday amid opposition furore over the alleged lack of terms of reference and suspicion that the nine-man panel’s will be used to “whitewash” the issue.

PR lawmakers also questioned the point of the select committee given that Najib had already said the government will not be bound by the panel’s findings.