Prime Minister Najib Razak’s administration has been slammed for indifference to a 72-year-old woman’s hunger strike against the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp).

“If the BN government really follows its principle of ‘people first’, it should immedaite visit Madam Tuw Yin Lan to hear out her demands,” said Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Assembly Hall’s (KLSCAH) Youth chief Robert Lua Khang Wei.

Tuw, from Kuantan, began her hunger strike on April 26 in a bid to highlight the purported health hazards of the plant.

Sinar Harian reported her as saying she would continue the hunger strike until the rare earths plant in Gebeng ceases operations, and hat she is prepared to die to achieve this.

bukit koman mining site and wells 310107 Lua, in a statement today, slammed the government for failing to heed the people’s concerns over the Lynas plant as well as the use of cyanide in the Bukit Koman gold mine near Raub, also in Pahang.

“KLSCAH Youth is very concerned with Madam Tuw’s health. She is getting increasingly thin and weak because she has only been drinking water, without taking in any glucose or consiming any food.

“We are also very moved and amazed that ... (at her age) she is still resolved in her quest for democracy and human rights,” Lua said.

While resistance to the Australian plant, which critics fear may pose a radiation threat, has been strong, NGOs and politicians opposed to it have failed to stop the government from issuing a temporary operating licence for the plant to begin production.