Gerakan delivers paper model of Lynas factory for Wong Tack to burn
Pahang Gerakan Youth today delivered a paper model of the Lynas factory to Bentong MP Wong Tack's office for him to "fulfil his dream" of burning down the plant.
"We went there to give him a surprise, but they just opened their window and chased us away. We did not ask him to burn the real plant, because it is illegal to do so...
Pahang Gerakan Youth today delivered a paper model of the Lynas factory to Bentong MP Wong Tack's office for him to "fulfil his dream" of burning down the plant.
"We went there to give him a surprise, but they just opened their window and chased us away. We did not ask him to burn the real plant, because it is illegal to do so.
"He said he wanted to burn it, but normal people won't dare to do that, so we gave him a fake model for him to fulfil his dream," said its chief Rax Chay when contacted.
He added that Wong's office in Bentong did not accept the gift so they just left it by the street with no intention of taking it back.
Meanwhile, Wong told Malaysiakini he had already explained many times that he reacted emotionally when he made his "burn Lynas" remark and had apologised a few years ago.
He accused the opposition of being bankrupt of issues and only repeating his old remarks to gain political mileage.
"Look, our opposition parties are low graded and inferior. MCA came to hold a banner last week, and today Gerakan brought this senseless farce," said Wong.
Wong (photo) said the Himpunan Hijau and his stand on this matter have never changed.
He admitted that the "Stop Lynas" slogan was to urge the government to shut down the Lynas plant because the operation had violated environmental laws and regulations.
"We are not extremist. We opposed the radioactive waste which was harmful to our safety and health," he added.
On Friday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said companies interested in acquiring Lynas had pledged to decontaminate low-level radioactivity from mined ore before shipping it out of the country.
In response to this, Wong said: "The minister and the cabinet's stand is that they must take away the radioactive waste. There should be no radioactive materials, we cannot compromise on this.
"In addition, Mahathir added a stricter requirement, where the material shipping into Malaysia should be with no radioactive."
Late last year, the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry instructed Lynas to send its stockpile of Water Leach Purification (WLP) - currently over 451,654 tonnes of it - to Australia by Sept 2, which is when its temporary storage license is up for renewal.
This was one of two pre-conditions set by the ministry, the other being that the company must submit an action plan on the disposal of its accumulated non-radioactive neutralisation underflow residue (NUF).
The cabinet had to discuss the issue following contradictory statements made by Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin and Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof after the latter commented that the plant could be allowed to continue operations in the interests of attracting foreign investments.
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