1mil signatures drive against Lynas at Dataran kicks off

VIDEO l 2.23 min

Himpunan Hijau’s push for one million signatures nationwide against the Lynas rare earth plant in Gebeng, Pahang by staking out at Dataran Merdeka kicked off at 6.30am today.

As at 11am, they have 30,000 signatures from some who signed at the square today, as well as those submitted by state Himpunan Hijau representatives from elsewhere.

Some roads around the iconic square have been closed to traffic in preparation for the Aug 31 Merdeka celebration, but a number of people were seen walking towards the Himpunan Hijau gathering to sign the petition.

N GO representatives like Dong Zong president Yap Sin Tian and Muafakat president Ishak Surin turned up as a show of support.

DAP Tras state assemblyperson Choong Siew Onn from Pahang arrived later, and more DAP elected representatives are planning to be at Dataran Merdeka at 2pm.

Himpunan Hijau chairperson Wong Tack vowed he would not leave the square until the one million signatures target is met.

"I will stay overnight here and am not going home," he added.

As at 1.45pm , Wong announced that about 100,000 signatures have been collected.

Ambiga: Expect another rally

Meanwhile, Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreevenasan, who turned up to support the petition at about 12.20pm , said the initiative was not only for the people in Pahang, but for all the Malaysian citizens.

She said that despite a series of mammoth protests, it appeared the government is not listening to the people.

"Perhaps to them (the government), 50,000 people is that not many enough, therefore we need to mobilise more people," she said.

Last month, Ambiga ( left ) had threatened to hold another mass rally should the Election Commission (EC) go ahead with its re-delineation exercise without cleaning the electoral rolls first.

She reiterated the threat but did not specify the date for  the event, dubbed as Bersih 4.0.

As at 3.45pm , Himpunan Hijau had gathered around 150,000 signatures.

Wong said this progress was far from the one million target and is prepared to stay overnight at Merdeka Square.

"This situation is within our expectations. I just hope that more people will support the petition as soon possible," he said.

"Hopefully, there'll be no rain tonight, or else I'll need to find shelter at the corridor of the Merdeka Square building," he quipped.

Wong added that he did not bring any camping facility for a overnight stay as this is disallowed by the Dewan Bandaran Kuala Lumpur (DBKL)

As the petitions were being collected, some Himpunan Hijau members were seen holding banners at a nearby road junction and motorists honked car horns in a show of show support.

Turning up heat on Lynas

Wong meanwhile said that Himpunan Hijau will intensify its campaign to bring down the Lynas plant by boycotting the commercial organisations related with Lynas.

He said the group have worked with some foreign environmental organisations, including Australia's Greenpeace, to issue letters to those institutes to express their grievances.

"Any financial institutions that have business relations with Lynas will be our enemies," he lamented.

Wong told the reporters that he has identify a list of companies that financially supporting Lynas, mainly from Japan and the United States, and banks from Shanghai and Hong Kong that provided the plant facilities.

"We are confident to bring down Lynas strategically," he said, adding that the petitions will be their most powerful weapon.

"We are going to send a strong message to the international stage," he said.

Wong added the petition will be submitted to the Agong instead of the BN government, which he said has lost the public’s confidence.

"They (BN) are a minority government, their mandate given by the people has lessened.”

He hopes the petition can be handed to the Agong before Aug 31 as this month is meaningful to the country.

Slow progress

It has been more than 12 hours since the petition campaign against Lynas kicked off, and Wong said the progress in collecting signatures had been very slow as the total number hovered at around 150,000.

With this, he confirmed that he would be spending the night at the square until the one million target has been achieved.

"I was pretty depressed in the afternoon because many state representatives were not reachable and some couldn't come over to KL to submit their collected signatures," he said.

However, at 7pm, he said there were supporters who took the initiative to obtain the petition forms and help in getting more signatures.

"Some Himpunan Hijau members will go to lively areas in KL (tonight) to get signatures and I hope the progress will be faster tomorrow," added Wong.

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