Malaysians are starting to lash out at Australia as a result of its giant mining corporation Lynas' plan to set up a rare-earth refinery in Gebeng, Pahang, a venture that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak insists is safe even though his counterpart Julia Gillard has firmly rejected any such plan to locate the very same plant in any part of Australia's vast and remote interior.
Hot on the heels of last weekend's anti-Lynas rally, which drew a huge 20,000-crowd from all over Malaysia, is controversial local rapper Namewee, who despite several efforts by the ruling Umno-BN government to muzzle him including arrest and sedition charges, has issued a new hard-hitting video.
"We sending so many students to Sydney Melbourne, We give you so much money and you give us Lynas?!" screamed Namewee in the clip entitled 'Good day to die'.
In the tape, Namewee also takes a dig at Najib with 'we are not scared because we have C4' in a reference to the PM's alleged involvement in the Altantuya Shaariibuu scandal, where the Mongolian national believed to be involved in the Najib's procurement of 2 Scorpene submarines was killed and her body exploded with restricted military-grade C4 explosives.
Deal is also about Umno-BN corruption
By Western standards, Good day to die is in keeping with the rap genre, where obscenity and foul language are the hallmarks. While, Namewee has taken on the Australian government for 'foisting' Lynas on Malaysians, perhaps he should also have examined the Malaysian government's side in rushing to approve the deal.
"I don't think it's about the Australian people or the Gillard government. It's about the Malaysian Umno-BN government and Lynas, which so happens to be an Aussie firm. You can't force a cow to drink water. You can take it to the water trough but if it doesn't want to drink, it will never. Same with the Najib administration. It is clearly bending over backwards in the deal, relegating the interests of its citizens and putting commercial benefits of Lynas first," PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
"Why? That is the first question and then what good is money if the people die? What good is a temporary shot in the arm for the economy if Malaysia become the toilet for the world and takes on all the scary, unwanted industries that no other country wants? Who wants to live in such a time-bomb of a place? So it doesn't make sense at all, there is more than meets the eye in the Lynas deal. The project should comes under a Royal Commission of Inquiry and all the terms thoroughly scrutinized."
Radioactive waste? Faraway but still in Malaysia!
Indeed, the manner in which Najib has insisted on defending the RM700million project and the way the plant was built before news was leaked to the public of its existence has prompted accusations of corruption in the deal.
Coincidentally, Najib has announced that the potentially radioactive waste materials will be taken far away from the Gebeng plant for disposal, but it would still be within Malaysian shores.
Such a lame offer is not likely to be well received and the anti-Lynas campaign expected to gather steam as residents of other states begin to worry if they will be unlucky 'chosen ones'.
"Although experts have proof, including declarations by international bodies, that the residue is safe, there are people who are still apprehensive about it. So we have decided that the residue will be moved to another place,"Bernama reported Najib as saying on Friday.
Trademark profanity
In the Lynas clip, Namewee vented his anger with his trademark profanity and switching to an Australian accent during the catchy chorus. He told the Aussie firm to pack up and take its toxic wastes back to Australia.
According to Harakahdaily, at the start of the video, Namewee, standing on an open space with a distant view of what is believed to be the Lynas plant, dedicates his song to "our Commonwealth friend".
Using the Hokkien derogatory word 'Angmo' to describe the whites, Namewee asks, "Banyak action?" (Arrogant?), before stepping up his use of expletives. A dancer holding a kangaroo soft doll by his side acts out his rather graphic lyrics. The clip has gone viral with more than 600,000 hits within 72 hours.
A record of controvery
The 28-year old rapper, whose full name is Wee Meng Chee, graduated in Mass Communication from a Taiwan university. He shot to fame with his "Negarakuku", a parody of the Malaysian national anthem, which had Najib's Umno party hopping with rage because it pointed out for the world to see on social media the apartheid racial class system it was promulgating in Malaysia.
Namewee got into trouble again in 2010, when he made fun of Siti Inshah, a Malay teacher, for hurling racial slurs at her Chinese and Indian students and basically telling them that they were inferior to the Malay citizens.
Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who refused to punish Siti Inshah, had tried to turn the negative publicity he drew for alleged racial favoritism by setting the police once again on Namewee, who was arrested and hauled up for sedition.
However, it did not stop the brash young rapper, who immediately announced he was seeking funding for his latest project Nasi Lemak 2.0 - a film that has since been released and drawn both box-office and critical success.
Malaysia Chronicle
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