PETALING JAYA: Former Bentong MP Wong Tack has slammed the government for its repeated U-turns on the Lynas issue.
He said it is disappointing that the government has continued to try to pull the wool over the people’s eyes.
“All these years, they have merely made use of the anti-Lynas grassroots movement for political gain,” he said in a statement today.
“When Pakatan Harapan first came into power in 2018, they extended Lynas’ licence, and the blame was put on Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“Yesterday, a minister from PH under a PH-led government extended Lynas’ licence again.”
Wong claimed the government agreed to extend Lynas Malaysia’s licence and lift the cracking and leaching condition just because Lynas said it could remove thorium from their raw materials and radioactive wastes, which could then be sold.
“It is unbelievable to see our decision makers continuously falling for this same old song over the past 12 years. Are they stupid or just playing stupid?” he said.
He said that if the minister really places the people’s well-being above corporate gains, he must first compel Lynas to prove that its “experiment” works by immediately removing the thorium from over a million tonnes of radioactive waste it has stockpiled.
“It is extremely irresponsible of the minister to extend Lynas’s licence and allow them to generate more waste when the existing waste has not been safely dealt with,” he said.
Yesterday, science, technology and innovation minister Chang Lih Kang said Lynas’s operating licence has been renewed, allowing the company to continue importing and processing rare earths until March 2026.
He said the extension allows the continuation of the Australian rare earths producer’s cracking and leaching activities in Malaysia.
