Brave New World (The Star)
2 June 2011
Note: The parts in red were removed by The Star
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There is an international environmental law called the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal. Yes, I know, the title alone is enough to put anyone to sleep. I have had generations of students do just that.
Anyway, please bear with me. This international law, which Malaysia is party to, basically forbids the illegal export of hazardous wastes to countries that do not want them or do not have the ability to dispose of them safely. It came about because it is actually cheaper for companies to hire a ship, pack it full of hazardous wastes and then dump it in some third world country half way across the planet.
A nasty practice to be sure and one that got pretty out of hand in the eighties, particularly in African countries. Hence this international law came about and Malaysia very rightly decided to be part of this regime. After all why should we take other people’s dangerous waste products?
It is a bit odd therefore that this Lynas rare earth plant was even considered in the first place. The waste product of any rare earth manufacturing is radioactive. It causes ill health and untold misery. It’s happened before in Perak and now it looks set to happen again in Pahang.
The Asian Rare Earth company in Bukit Merah was Japanese, the one in Lynas in Australian. I wonder why they didn’t just have the plant in the wide open spaces of Australia. Is it because it is cheaper to have it here, or perhaps because the Aussies have more stringent laws with regard to radioactive wastes and therefore it makes more sense to come to a country where such laws do not reach such high standards.
Whatever the reason, it sure looks like a version of dumping to me. Instead of creating the waste in their own home country and then dumping it here, they just build the plant right here along with their waste products. I do not blame the people of Gebeng to be very concerned because this is their health and the future of their children at stake here. Their opposition to the plant is totally understandable. Naturally the government and the proponents of the plant will say that it is all safe and fine and dandy.
Speaking of the proponents of this plant a bunch of them disrupted a peaceful protest against the plant recently in Kuantan. The anti anti-plant group was reported to number in the scores and they not only yelled and screamed but also apparently resorted to a spot of physicality. They didn’t like the anti plant people because it seems that they were scaring away tourists.
Isn’t it nice to have such tourism minded people in Kuantan. I didn’t even know that there were tourists in Kuantan. Furthermore one of them was said to have stated that “this is Malay land”. This got me confused, is it alright to have Malay land irradiated? Does the glow of radiation enhance the Malay-ness of the place? Very odd indeed.
There was a review expert panel set up and they have been having meetings with various concerned groups. They seem to be saying that the plant is safe. However, opponents of the plant say that the data obtained in coming to this conclusion came from the plant proponent themselves and therefore is unreliable. An independent third party should be called in to make the necessary investigations and data gathering.
This is a reasonable request, and one which actually mirrors the decision of the High Court in the ARE case in Perak. The judge in that case held that analysis of the data coming from the ARE plant sources could be questioned as the neutrality of said data would doubtlessly be, well, questionable.
I am certain that those who are opposed to this plant will continue in their struggle and I hope that there will be a full and open disclosure of all the facts so that an informed decision will be made. It still seem strange to me however that a government which has put its name to an international law which condemns hazardous wastes would even consider such a plant on its shores.
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6 comments:
Seems to me like The Star is too chicken to print your actual wordings.
What good would it be to read it then?
Hello Tiger. To be fair, most of what i write is printed verbatim. But when it's not, I like to put it on the blog. If the cuts take away from the general meaning of the article, they have agreed to not publish at all. Sometimes though the article does not come out because I was too busy (read lazy), to write one!
azmi
Fair is fair.
But your remarks, which included Malaysia as a party to the agreements, was perceived to be saying our government was not compliant.
Therefore, The Star was afraid to offend the powers that be.
And it wasn't the first time they edited, and it won't be the last either.
trust them (Lynas, tourism malaysia touts, etc) to resort to thuggery to intimidate the protesters. Hmm, didn't Hosni Mubarak also try something like that but to no good effect? Anyway, about Malaysia being a dumping ground for stuff people DON'T WANT in their own neighbourhood: let's see, today it's Lynas in Pahang (and if the tourism malaysia touts are to be believed, it's going to be on Malay land too and that's why it's righteous). Then by 2022, 2 nuke power plants (proposed site in Penang, over many many dead bodies there, i presume). Our future's so bright, we gotta wear shades?
Whoever land...pollution should never be happened.
THIS IS ABOUT YOUR ARTICLE THAT YOU WROTE AND BEING PUBLISH IN THE SUN. ARE U A MUSLIM?JUST ASK YOURSELF. YEAH, I KNOW YOU ARE WELL EDUCATED PERSON,OBVIOUSLY..BUT COME ON.. DON'T SAY LIKE THAT ABOUT HUDUD!I KNOW YOU WANT TO EXPRESS YOUR OPINION BUT YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT SOME RULES IN ISLAM CANNOT BE QUESTIONED. I'M JUST A HUMAN BEING, NOT PERFECT MUSLIM AND NOT WELL EDUCATED LIKE YOURSELF, IN FACT I BELIEVE MY ENGLISH IN THIS COMMENT IS NOT VERY WELL BUT THE POINT IS, YOU ARE THE SCHOLAR. PEOPLE LISTEN T0 WHAT YOU SAY. YEAH, MAYBE WHEN INVOLVING POLITICS THINGS BECOME MORE ANNOYING THAN IT SHOULD BUT DON'T LET IT CONFUSED US ABOUT THE TRUTH OF ISLAM LAW. AND YOU SAID ABOUT DEMOCRACY?..YEAH.IT IS THE BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT NOWADAYS BUT IT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT UNLESS IT FOLLOW ISLAM LAWS AS WELL.
I QUOTED YOUR WORD HERE
" The reason why I object is encapsulated in Hadi’s (PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang) statement in the press on the matter (if it was accurately reported) where he said that hudud cannot be questioned.
Whoa there, “cannot be questioned”? I am sorry, if you have personal beliefs that affect only you and you won’t question them, that’s all fine and dandy.
But if you are going to introduce something into the public sphere, something that will affect the lives of the citizens, I don’t care if the source of what you are introducing is divine, it jolly well better be questioned.
And I don’t care if you say I have no degree from Al-Azhar and no goatee to go along with it, I will question any law that any government wants to introduce.
This has been my problem with any religion-based law making, the idea that simply because it is divine in origin means it can’t be questioned. In a democracy, if we can’t question the laws that affect our lives, then it is not a democracy at all."
IF YOU HAVE SOME SPIRITUAL MISTRUST IN ISLAM PLEASE..PLEASE DON'T SAY IT OUT LOUD. IF YOU WANNA BE A FREE THINKER, DON'T LET OTHER PEOPLE JOIN YOU. OF COURSE ISLAM LAW IS DIVINE AND YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE NO RIGHT TO QUESTION IT IF SOMEONE WANT TO IMPLEMENT THE LAW IN ISLAMIC COUNTRY. UNLESS YOU NON MUSLIM BUT IF YOU DO NON.. DON'T WORRY..HUDUD WILL NOT BEING USED AGAINST YOU . THE ONLY QUESTION YOU SHOULD ASK ABOUT THIS MATTER IS, IS THAT HADI REALLY WANT TO MAKE MALAYSIA A REAL ISLAMIC COUNTRY OR IT IS JUST HIS POLITICAL PLAN?..BUT YOU NEVER KNOW WHATS IN PEOPLE MIND AND HEART..SO I BELIEVE YOU JUST SHUT YOUR MOUTH UP AND AVOID YOURSELF FROM RELIGIOUS ISSUE. UNLESS U ATIES, AND THEN I LEAVE YOU AND YOUR THOUGHTS ALONE.
ASSALAMUALAIKUM.
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