Friday 13 July 2012

714 Calling on all citizens to Stand Up for Your Rights to a Clean and Safe Future

714 National Day of Action to Stop Lynas

Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) calls on all concerned individuals, organisations and political parties to join us in force to show the Government that Malaysians want a clean and safe future.

Join us to show the Government that you will stand up for your rights, to protect your investment and your family to build a strong, healthy and clean nation for all Malaysians.

Each and every one of us have toiled and worked hard to better our life and to provide for our family. We have invested precious time, energy and money to make our home, our family, our work, our businesses and our country better and safer.

Every day, millions of ordinary Malaysians- young and old, men and women, boys and girls strive to better our life at work, at home, at school and at play.

We want to be proud Malaysians and we want to take pride in our effort!

Now, one foreign company, Australia’s Lynas Corporation is threatening to change our hope and contaminate our future by building the world’s biggest rare earth plant on our shore – entirely tax-free!

We the working citizens of Malaysia have been paying taxes to build our nation.  Yet we are now expected to live with a giant rare earth plant.  This is not the deal we have worked for!

If the Lynas project is not stopped, Malaysia will be tarnished with a bad image for housing the world’s biggest rare earth waste dump for an Australian company.

We will no longer be sure if our fresh seafood will be safe enough to eat, if the water we drink will be clean and free from contamination and if the air we breathe in will be free of radioactive particles or any other pollutants.

Our beautiful beaches and the South China Sea may also be ruined.  Who would want to spend their holiday next to the world’s largest rare earth refinery plant?

What is the point of our hard work and investment if in return all we get is living in the shadow of Lynas’ pollution?

Malaysia will be a laughing stock of the world whilst Lynas and its shareholders will be laughing to the bank cashing in their hefty profit on our government’s generosity and foolishness!

Remember - the tragedies endured by the locals and workers at Bukit Merah – from early deaths; from terminal cancer, birth defects, miscarriages and numerous more cases of cancer even until today.  Our Government has failed to prevent that.  The government has done nothing about the health issues affecting the community.

Mitsubishi’s Asian Rare Earth (ARE) plant was shut down more than twenty years ago, yet the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB), the authority responsible for the clean-up work has failed to clear away all of the toxic waste dumped by the rare earth plant. This is despite the US$100 million clean-up costs paid for by Mitsubishi. Today, piles of toxic waste are still left where they were ditched, continuing to contaminate the land and the water, posing health risks and hazards to unsuspecting locals.

It is outrageous that even with that failure, the AELB is set to issue an operating licence to Lynas.  By right, the government should carefully clean-up the Bukit Merah mess to protect tax paying citizens and members of the public, not bringing another plant ten times bigger with hundreds of times more waste.  To date, none of the ARE workers were tested for occupational related health issues.

Remember - the Lynas plant is situated in an environmentally and socially sensitive area of Malaysia.
Through our strong Stop Lynas protest actions in Pahang and in Kuala Lumpur, we have managed to create some pressure on the government – to delay the issuing of the operating licence and to institute several inquiries.  According to Lynas, it is losing A$10 million with every month of delay. The battle is not over until the rare earth plant is STOPPED.

The Lynas rare earth plant is a not a Kuantan issue but a national problem which every thinking Malaysian must take responsibility for – to OPPOSE and STOP it before it is too late.

Even though the Stop Lynas campaign is the biggest and strongest ever environmental campaign in Malaysia, we still have a long way to go to STOP IT.  We MUST PERSIST and fight until the end.
If we fail to stop Lynas and if BN return to power at the next election, we will have nuclear power plants, the Pengerang petro-chemical estate, and many more toxic and dangerous industries on our shores!

Malaysians, if we do not stand up together to fight this big battle against Lynas now, we will have little chance of winning any of the others.

Advanced countries have tightened their environmental law to control pollution because of the threat of climate change. They will be many fugitive companies looking for a lax haven to park their dirty investment to escape strict laws and heavy taxes.

Malaysia must be the pride of ASEAN, not a dumping ground for the run-away polluters. The first step for us to reclaim our pride and our dignity is to stand together to FIGHT Lynas.

Let us make our votes count. Let us show our government we are decent human beings as good as those living in advanced countries. We want a future we can be proud of and stand tall to share with our family and friends. 

Come and Join US to Stop Lynas and Save Malaysia NOW!

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