— Sam Peh
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 23, 2012
FEB 23 — Now let me get this straight: The Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB)) need not worry what the international community or investors think about getting Lynas out of Malaysia.
It only think about Malaysians — the same chaps who pay the salaries of Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan and other civil servants. According to the director-general of Lynas, he only goes by the facts.
So do I. The facts are that AELB has given Lynas a temporary operating licence and allowed them to put up a multimillion ringgit plant without a long-term plan for the disposal of toxic waste.
No company in the WORLD has devised a foolproof storage system and to think that some company from Australia has achieved a world breakthrough in storage is a joke. And to think that they have been given a temporary operating licence.
And let me remind you that if not for the pressure by the Opposition, the AELB and MITI would have given Lynas a full licence without batting an eyelid despite obvious holes in the waste storage.
Even now I can tell you that this TOL is an eyewash, because are we to understand that the government is going to reimburse Lynas for the multimillion ringgit plant?
So Raja Aziz can carry on his wayang and sound like he actually knows what he is talking about. Another fact is that he can put whatever spin he wants about the revenue-sharing plan with Lynas (0.05 per cent of Lynas revenue) but no regulator worth its salt should put itself in a position of conflict.
The simple fact is that something stinks about this project and the government’s handling of it.