Press statement by Teresa Kok, MP for Seputeh on 25 June 2012 at Kuala Lumpur
Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai’s statement that Lynas is to transport residue waste from the Lynas plant out of Malaysia if it fails to find a suitable permanent place for storage is the stuff third grade horror movies are made of.
Liow said it was not Malaysia’s business that where the residue will be sent to, so long as the waste residue is out of the country.
As we are well aware, the Lynas plant’s waste is radioactive in nature and hazardous to health and the environment. Liow has domestic and international obligations to state which country will allow this radioactive waste to be sent to as Malaysia would then be implicated as a hazardous waste exporter.
In the Basel Convention, in which Malaysia is one of the signatories since 1993, it is strictly discourage or, to certain extent, prohibited for one nation to export any hazardous waste to another country. Malaysia will be breaching the Basel Convention if she is to export such toxic waste to any other country.
I am wondering whether the Cabinet has overlooked the Basel Convention or whether the government has totally no idea what Basel Convention is.
I am disappointed that the people of Gebeng and neighbouring areas are to be made guinea pigs. They have demanded loud and clear that they do not want to be used, not even for a minute, in experiments to prove the Lynas plant does no harm to them.
I demand the government take serious consideration of the public grievances over the Lynas issue and act with responsibility.
-Teresa Kok-