Fuziah: Pakatan will shut down Lynas plant if it wins power

Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh has confirmed that Pakatan will shut down Lynas Corporation’s rare earth refinery if the coalition captures federal power in the coming general election.

Fuziah, a PKR vice-president and member of the Pakatan leadership council, has the full mandate from Pakatan on this issue.

Asked whether her view was shared by other Pakatan leaders, she tweeted: “Both @anwaribrahim & nikaziz hv announced publicly” and then, “@anwaribrahim exact words wre, 2day we come in2 power, tomorrow we’ll stop t plant! RT @anilnetto: So it’s cnfirmd PR will shut dwn t plant?”

https://twitter.com/#!/fuziah99/status/165331394413862912

According to Selangor exco member Elizabeth Wong, Pakatan’s stand on shutting down the plant if it comes to power is clear and has been repeated many times.

I had posed the question on Twitter yesterday after Suaram executive director Dr Kua Kia Soong wrote a statement published in Malaysiakini on 1 February asking Pakatan to state clearly its stand on Lynas.

Lynas Corporation chairperson Nick Curtis had earlier dismissed Fuziah’s view as “only one view within what would make up the political coalition against the government and said the main opposition PAS party supported the Lynas plant”.

A civil society activist in the Lynas campaign, however, told me that Pas has come out very strongly against the issue and he is confident of the party’s opposition to the plant. Moreover, at a 6 January fund-raising dinner organised by the Stop Lynas Coalition in Shah Alam, Pakatan was represented by Hadi Awang, Nik Aziz, Tan Seng Giaw and Azmin Ali.

It is therefore clear that Pakatan has taken a collective public stand to shut down the plant if it comes to power. Concerned Malaysians will hold the coalition to its word if it captures power in Putrajaya.