Kuantan people will win, says anti-Lynas campaigner

"I have a feeling the Kuantan people will win."

"The underlying force is the local people, the potential victims," Tan ( left ) told Malaysiakini.

"The government officers, some of them are quite opposed (to Lynas), so there is an instruction from the (Pahang) menteri besar that government officers shall not oppose (Lynas).

"The Malay farmers, the fishermen, they are the ones who are very active in Badar (Badan Bertindak Anti-Rare Earth Refinery). The local groups are very strong. They have wayang kulit shows almost every weekend, to keep the campaign going.

"There are people who have already proclaimed: when the shipment (or rare earth ore) arrives, we will lie down on the route, and say ‘over my dead body'."

The ‘Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas' (SMSL) and Badar groups have been gathering popular support, thanks to a young, creative campaigning team and shrewd use of the social media and mass demonstrations.

A joint "Yellow/Green 109" rally, featuring anti-Lynas protesters, Bersih 2.0 coordinators Ambiga Sreenevasan and Maria Chin Abdullah, environmentalists and Orang Asli land rights activists last Sunday was truncated by police action.

Even so, some 2,000 citizens made a spirited appearance , and were hardly intimidated.

Tan observed that members of the public have taken ownership of the anti-Lynas movement, and this mirrors the grassroots participation in Bersih 2.0.

"Even when Ambiga and Maria Chin were trapped (in the KL Sentral station), the (Bersih 2.0) event went on," he said. "The people can really organise themselves. The organisers are fantastic, coming up with quite different ideas, trying to get the citizens involved. It is interesting that the NGOs seem to be more in the news than the opposition."

Lobbying in Australia

Tan and other anti-Lynas campaigners returned last month from a hectic campaigning trip to Australia.

There, they paid around A$1,000 (RM3,140) to examine the list of shareholders in Lynas. Asked whether any of the shareholders had Malaysian connections, Tan replied, "most of them are nominees. You see nominees (managed by) Public Bank, CIMB Bank... they are not stupid."

The Malaysian activists successfully lobbied senior parliamentarians, policymakers and local councillors, but their meeting with Lynas executive chairperson Nicholas Curtis in Sydney, made little impact.

Curtis has said Lynas is consulting "thousands" of stakeholders in the rare earth refinery.

SMSL met the Brad Pettite, the mayor of Fremantle, the city through which the rare earth ore must be driven, on its way to be shipped to Gebeng.

After the SMSL briefing, the mayor called on Lynas to relocate its refinery from Gebeng to Western Australia.

There is growing anxiety in Fremantle over potential radioactivity exposure risks during transport of the ore from the Mt Weld mine to the port.

Australians have misgivings, too, over large mining companies moving overseas, over loss of jobs, a lack of regulatory control over the companies, potential tax evasion from a proposed carbon tax, as well as abuse of lax environmental laws of Malaysia.

Tan pointed out that HSBC investment companies had recently sold off their shares in Lynas, hinting this was a result of bad publicity.

"(The share price) plunged from AUS$1.70 (RM5.40) in recent months to about AUS$1.05 (RM3.30). Of course you can say recent market instability (caused the drop), but I think it's significant if a big investor has disposed of substantial shares. In that sense, I think our campaign, together with the Australians, is having quite a good impact."

Tan explained the Green Party is a kingmaker in Australia's hung Parliament, and so environmental issues have come to the fore. Labour, the Greens' coalition partner, is also taking a keen interest in Lynas.

"These issues are crucial... if the (Fremantle) port workers are exposed to this (radioactivity), the Labour Party would have serious thinking to do, because union members would be affected. We gave a talk to the marine workers' union, and their response was good."

Monitoring Australian companies abroad

"We managed to get Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister, and now the foreign minister, to issue a letter saying (the Australian authorities) expect Australian companies overseas to observe high standards, similar to Australia's: they cannot make excuses that they follow local (Malaysian) standards, which are lower."

Tan described an analogy with the proposed deal to move boat people from Australia to Malaysia, where human rights laws are routinely violated. The refugee transfer was scuttled because Australian lawmakers objected on grounds of Malaysia's failure to meet international standards for protection of human rights.

Tan also noted that in Europe, Germany and France, for example, have strict laws on corruption, where companies giving bribes in foreign countries to lubricate contracts can be prosecuted.

"It's not easy... but we should highlight this principle to all these companies," Tan said.

Lynas has bristled at suggestions that a RM9.1 million contract for steel tanks, awarded to a Kencana Petroleum subsidiary, has some bearing to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's recent vocal support for the Gebeng plant. Kencana's CEO is Mahathir's son Mokhzani.

Lynas stated the "relatively small and unremarkable contract" was "on arm's length terms", and had been decided following a process of open tender.

Ghosts from the past

Tan has a doctorate in a chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge. He did his research in physical chemistry after being released from the Internal Security Act. He had been the first of 106 prisoners of conscience imprisoned during the ‘Operation Lalang' crackdown on NGOs and opposition politicians in 1987.

What was his offence against former premier Mahathir, leading to his detention without trial a quarter of a century ago? As vice-president of the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia (EPSM), Tan had led an effective resistance movement against the notorious radioactive Asian Rare Earth (ARE) refinery in Perak.

Japanese giant Mitsubushi had built the radioactive ARE mine and toxic waste dump near Bukit Merah to extract rare earth minerals, to be used in making components for televisions and other electronic gadgets.

Mitsubishi eventually shut down the refinery in 1994, in a bid to save its international reputation, battered by protests and legal action by local citizens.

But damage, it seems, had already been done. Local residents subsequently reported eight new cases of leukaemia - seven of whom have died - and many birth defects among Bukit Merah's 11,000 residents, as the New York Times pointed out in March.

High levels of lead, a nerve and bone poison, were also found in two-thirds of the children tested in Bukit Merah.

The Malaysian government told a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in 1997 that "statistically, there is no conclusive evidence to show that the increase in leukaemia, infant mortality, congenital deformities and the increased level of lead in the affected children's blood were due solely to the operations in ARE."

The government assured the UN that "the Atomic Energy Licensing Board of Malaysia - the competent authority in controlling the operations of ARE - was satisfied that ARE had complied with all the licensing conditions laid upon it."

Lynas now claims radioactive thorium concentrations in the rare earth ores it is planning to ship to Gebeng will be lower than they were in Bukit Merah, and will therefore be safe.

Tan dismisses such claims: "There is no such thing as a safe level of radiation... they are playing around with people's lives."

---

KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - ‘ anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia ’. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians. Keruah Usit can be contacted at keruah_usit@yahoo.com