Torching Harapan manifesto won't help, Dr M tells anti-Lynas protestors
Anti-Lynas rally protestors will not have their grievances resolved by burning the Pakatan Harapan manifesto, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The move to burn the Harapan manifesto may only end up angering some people, the prime minister added...
Anti-Lynas rally protestors will not have their grievances resolved by burning the Pakatan Harapan manifesto, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The move to burn the Harapan manifesto may only end up angering some people, the prime minister added.
"They can burn the manifesto, but the thing is that they have to deal with it in a commonsensical way," he told a press conference during his visit to AirAsia’s headquarters in Sepang today.
"I am quite sure (even) if you burn all the manifesto, you can't resolve anything, you just make people angry," he said.
Without elaborating, he pledged that the government will look into the people's call to move Lynas out of Gebeng, Kuantan.
"The people there still feel that they should get rid of this (Lynas plant) from their site. Okay, we will look into that," he said.
A rally will be held in Kuantan this Sunday, with protestors set to burn the Harapan manifesto to symbolise the government allegedly breaking its promise towards sustainable development.
Mahathir has repeatedly said he was not in favour of shutting down the refinery due to the economic impact of such an action.
The cabinet recently decided to extend Lynas' current permit to operate its refinery by six months. It was originally set to expire on Sept 2.
This decision came with the condition that Lynas would need to construct a permanent disposal facility in Pahang to deal with the 580,000 tonnes of waste material currently stored within the refinery.
Meanwhile, Lynas' "cracking and leaching facility" – which produces radioactive waste material – must be moved abroad. However, the company will have four years to do so.
The four-year deadline raised the question if the government was preparing to allow Lynas to operate beyond that.
When pressed about the matter today, Mahathir avoided providing a direct answer.
"We give them four years (to meet these conditions), we are not going to chase them out," he said, adding, "We fixed it at six months from now but we hope to get them to do these things (conditions fulfilment) quickly," he said.
When asked what if the Australian mining company failed to meet these conditions, he said, the government would study the reasons given by Lynas. for their failure.
According to him, the government will also collect data from the refinery to check if Lynas had fulfilled the conditions.
