Zaidi Azmi
SHEESH! One would expect that the Lynas controversy would have ended following the green-light Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had given to the world’s only non-Chinese rare-earth refiner. Alas it was not to be.
Apparently, the three harshest critics of Lynas, all of whom are members of Dr Mahathir’s administration, continue to make noise and cast confusions to the point of sounding rather sour over the decision.
To the unfamiliar, Lynas’ latest battle for survival in Malaysia rekindled last year. It was subjected to a review – by a panel of experts and scientists – that it passed but still had its fate in a limbo due to clashing directives from the government over residue disposal issues.
The only clarity over the government’s position on the company was three days ago when Dr Mahathir explicitly said this: “we will allow Lynas to carry on because otherwise we are going to lose a very big investment from Australia.”
Despite sounding a tad receptive of Dr Mahathir’s remark, DAP’s Wong Tack reaction to the greenlight was quite peculiar, especially on the part where Wong insisted that Lynas can stay if the company “complies with our law.”
His comment was odd in the sense that he himself was present when the six regulatory bodies, that had been monitoring Lynas since day one, had given the company an all-clear at a town hall forum, in Kuantan, last year.
Perhaps the then-approval would have stuck in his mind if he wasn’t busy accusing the monitoring outfits of being a bunch of salesmen of Lynas and had even asked them how much the company had paid them for the sales pitch.
Geez…can one get any bitter than that?
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