M wanted to sack Yeo Bee Yin over Lynas

Malaysiakini:

Liew's new book reveals Dr M wanted to sack Yeo Bee Yin

In early January last year, Maszlee Malik resigned as the education minister. It was essentially a sacking as then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad asked him to leave.

It has now come to light that Maszlee was not the first minister Mahathir had wanted to sack, according to a new book by former deputy defence minister Liew Chin Tong.

The book is a biography about DAP's Lim Kit Siang but also give a glimpse into the inner workings of the short-lived Pakatan Harapan government.

On Aug 15, 2019, the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB), an agency under then energy, science, technology, environment and climate change minister Yeo Bee Yin (above), announced new and significant conditions for Lynas' operating licence.

Among others, the conditions required Lynas to shift its cracking and leaching facility back to Australia within four years.

It was the same process that had led to a build-up of radioactive waste at Lynas' rare earth processing plant in Gebeng, Kuantan.

The AELB also instructed Lynas to terminate its ambitions to commercialise the waste, which the firm argued is low in radiation, into fertiliser dubbed "Condisoil".

Lynas also had to build a permanent deposit facility (PDF) to store the waste that had already been produced since 2012 and will continue to produce until 2023, when the cracking and leaching process is finally moved to Australia.

All this happened on a Thursday. By the following Wednesday when the cabinet meeting convened, Mahathir wanted to sack Yeo.

"At the Wednesday cabinet meeting on Aug 21, 2019, Mahathir said that he wanted to make a minor change to the cabinet portfolios.

"The news leaked and we were anxious," Liew said in the book titled Lim Kit Siang: Patriot. Leader. Fighter.

Liew said he later found out from then finance minister Lim Guan Eng, who was also the DAP secretary-general, about what had transpired.

"I left the building (prime minister's office) as the leaders went into the prime minister's room, only to find out from Guan Eng when we met with Kit Siang later that Mahathir wanted to remove Yeo over her defiance on Lynas and other environmental issues.

"The leaders later managed to dissuade Mahathir from executing his plan. Bee Yin stayed on," Liew wrote.

Yeo's office has yet to respond to a request for comment.

High expectations

Liew did not elaborate on the specifics of what had upset Mahathir.

More than two months after the episode, Mahathir met with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the 35th Asean Summit in Bangkok.

Following the meeting, Mahathir said Morrison spent a good amount of time asking that the conditions imposed on Lynas be dropped.

Former deputy defence minister Liew Chin Tong

The conditions were ultimately retained but they still fell short of a full closure of Lynas' facility in Kuantan.

Liew acknowledged that as the DAP had campaigned against the project since 2012, there was a hardcore base that had expected a swift closure of the plant.

Regardless of whether Lynas was closed or not, its radioactive waste accumulated since 2012 at Gebeng, Kuantan, would still have to be dealt with.

In February, Malaysiakini reported that Lynas was planning to store the waste in a water catchment area in Bukit Ketam, Kuantan, despite the firm initially denying that it was a water catchment area.

The PDF was part of a wider integrated waste disposal facility with involvement from the Pahang royalty.

Pahang Regent Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah relinquished his direct shareholding in the project following Malaysiakini's report.

+++++++++

kt notes:

In Sept 2019 I posted:

Lynas - Mahathir sucking up to Japan?

TMI:

Is it worth having Lynas in Malaysia?

According to one of the chief defenders of the Lynas facility, Minister of Entrepreneur Development Mohd Redzuan Yusof, of flying car fame, he commented that Lynas’s investment was “too big to ignore”.

Malaysian flying car "... made in Japan"?

wakakaka

It is unfortunate then that a minister, catapulted into power by the people no less, is willing to prostitute the health and safety of Malaysians in the name of money.

For Redzuan, nothing is sacred – he is even willing to bring in the race card to defend Lynas, stating that there is “already significant Bumiputera participation in rare earth processing through Lynas, where more than 90% of the staff are Malays”.

Even Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is fiercely defensive towards the continued operation of the facility.

Despite increased public outcry, Dr Mahathir dismissed the concerns about Lynas – going as far to compare it to the Chernobyl disaster of 1989 – stating that the dangers posed by the facilities far dwarfs those posed by the infamous nuclear incident.

Suddenly, it seems everything is at risk when it comes to Lynas, from good relations with Australia and Japan, the billions in supposed new investments and the Bumiputera agenda.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that Malaysia – and Dr Mahathir himself – has faced a problem with radioactive rare earth.

The Asia Rare Earth Sdn Bhd (ARE, a company owned by Mitsubishi Chemicals) incident in Bukit Merah, Perak, during the 1980s, which involved rare earth and radioactive waste is surprisingly rarely mentioned.

when once Malaysia had sucked up to Japan

The aftereffects of the ARE facility are still felt today, despite more than RM300 million spent cleaning up its waste.

It is estimated that Bukit Merah community will have one case of leukaemia every three years as a result of radioactivity.

So why is Lynas so important for the Pakatan Harapan government?

Environmental concerns notwithstanding, the Lynas plant plays a crucial role in the global rare earths supply chain – an important resource for everyday electronics such as smartphones and lightbulbs.

With China possessing a near-monopoly on global rare earth processing capacity, you might assume that Dr Mahathir is attempting to raise Malaysia’s international standing.

Japan, which is one of the world’s key importers of rare earth materials, is a major financial backer of Lynas (given the recent announcement that Lynas would supply Japan 7,200 tonnes of rare earths a year until 2038) and is also seen as being actively involved in lobbying for the corporation.

Surely it cannot be pure coincidence that Dr Mahathir gave his unconditional support for Lynas to continue to operate in Malaysia during a recent visit to Tokyo.

However, this is not worth the 50,000 to 70,000 lives that may be affected if any environmental catastrophe occurs at the Lynas facility.

Aside from serving as a chess piece in the game of global powers, what actual benefits does this facility provide the government?

Will foreign governments suddenly see Malaysia as a key player in global politics – just because we are willing to let foreign countries store waste that even the most developed countries refuse to take up?

If we are really serious about foreign investment, surely there are better initiatives that are worth considering? How about Iskandar Malaysia and Forest City?

Its economic benefits are also considerable, and at least do not deal with toxic waste.

There is a significant presence of foreign companies, with Singapore being the largest investor in Iskandar Malaysia followed by the United States, Spain, Japan and China.

It also potentially will serve as a key growth region for the state, and through Forest City – it already provides jobs for more than 1,350 local families and is set to provide more than 220,000 job opportunities in 2035.

The government cannot afford to compromise on the issue of toxic waste. This is the chance for the government to prove that it can put vested interests aside for the sake of the health and safety of the Malaysian people.

There is no need for another Pasir Gudang.


* Shafiq Abdullah reads The Malaysian Insight








racists and Lynas

... and on 30 May 2019 I also posted:

Mahathir - Once bitten by A.R.E, Twice NOT shy with Lynas

MM Online - Dr M: Malaysia will allow Lynas plant to keep running (extracts)

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 ― Malaysia will allow Lynas Corp to keep operating its rare earths plant in Gebeng, Pahang, according to a report by Reuters.
This comes after months of uncertainty over the company's operations here.

“We think we'll have to renew the licence,” Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was quoted as saying at a news conference in Tokyo, and that the government did not want to lose such a large investment.

Do you think he has consulted sweeties Ministers Yeo Bee Yin and Fuziah Salleh?

Wakakaka. I bet the two sweeties have been caught unguarded and are now tearing their lovely hair off because of Maddy chopping them off at their lovely ankles with the bizzare approval of Lynas' continuing operations.

One month ago, I wrote that Sweetie Fuziah Salleh, the very person who has long put her effort, heart and soul into getting rid of Lynas, said:

Redzuan Md Yusof tidak perlu menyentuh isu Lynas kerana ia tiada kaitan dengan portfolionya sebagai menteri pembangunan usahawan.

“Saya kira biar menteri dan timbalan (menteri) tenaga, sains, teknologi, alam sekitar dan perubahan iklim yang jawab mengenai sisa buangan radioaktif Lynas.

“Kementerian Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri serta Lembaga Pembangunan Pelaburan Malaysia urus mengenai pelaburan. Tiada benda kaitan dengan menteri pembangunan usahawan.”

In other words, to cut it short, Sweetie Fuziah told Redzuan to STFU as removing radioactive waste from Lynas is in the domain of the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister, namely, Sweetie Yeo, and has nothing to do with the Entrepreneur Development Ministry.

But what makes that fCk-er believe TaiKoe wants Lynas to stay on? Alas, it seems Minister Redzuan knows Mahathir better than Fuziah or we do.

If we recall, some 30 years ago (1979) when then-DPM Mahathir allowed Japan's Mitsubishi Chemicals to open a rare-earths refinery in the Malaysian village of Bukit Merah and Papan, whose residents were mainly Chinese Malaysians.

The facility was warmly embraced by Mahathir's old government (and cronies) as an advanced foreign investment that would help create jobs in Perak. But of course the old cunning musang did not have that plant situated in (his own constituency of) Kubang Pasu despite his public confidence it was safe.

Although the plant is gone today, alas, its toxic legacy persists. Yes, the plant has been abandoned, but the locals saw a rise in leukaemia, birth defects, infant deaths, congenital diseases, miscarriages and lead poisoning in the following years.

We couldn't do much about the Mahathir government's approval of Asia Rare Earth (ARE), but shouldn't their (Bukit Merah and Papan's) ill fate serve as a warning to Malaysia to stop the Lynas rare-earths plant in Pahang from continuing?



Papan residents strolling past a row of pre-war shop houses that are now mainly abandoned

In 1985, the residents of Bukit Merah obtained an injunction to stop ARE from operating until it meets safety standards. But it wasn't until 1992 when ARE closed down the factory operations as a result of increasing public pressure that threatened to launch a global boycott on Mitsubishi products. Yes, it was Mitsubishi which closed the mine, not Mahathir.

And the Pribumi party minister Redzuan, yes, he might appear stupid, insensitive and callous to support Lynas, no doubt due to his high sense of bodek-ness, but he certainly knows the attitude of Mahathir who, as we have known him for years before, cared sh*t for workers, labourers and the proletariat.

The consequences of Lynas will besmirch his name long after his eventual death, just as the consequences of ARE has, though few remember Mahathir's cruel decision and attitude towards Bukit Merah's and Papan's cancer-afflicted residents.