Media Statement by Yeo Bee Yin, Member of Parliament for Puchong on 17 February 2023 (Friday) in Puchong

The government's decision to stand its ground and continue imposing the condition of cracking and leaching process removal on Lynas by July 2023, despite intense lobbying from many fronts, is the right move.

The government's decision to stand its ground and continue imposing the condition of cracking and leaching process removal on Lynas by July 2023, despite intense lobbying from many fronts, is the right move.

1. About four years ago, we imposed a pre-condition for Lynas license renewal to remove its radioactive waste from Malaysia according to its TWO letters of undertaking to the government of Malaysia in 2012 (attached).

2. Lynas fought very hard and they managed to lobby enough people that they didn't need to keep their words, in the name of economic development, jobs, FDI etc.

Lynas and The Rare Earth Industry

The New Straits Times ran a story on 16 August 2019 headlined “Yeo: My view on Lynas remains the same” and this did not go down well with the then Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir. In the report, I maintained my stand announced on 4 December 2018 that Lynas must ship out the accumulated radioactive waste at its rare earth processing plant in Kuantan, as promised in two letters of undertaking dated 23 February 2012 and 6 March 2012.

The Prime Minister expressed his displeasure with my remarks to a few Pakatan Harapan leaders. He wasn’t happy with my “stubbornness” in insisting that Lynas ships out its radioactive waste, as the Australian government, both federal and state, had expressly refused to accept the return of the waste. He was also not pleased that as a minister, I had publicly disagreed with the cabinet's decision. He was of the view that no matter the discussion at the cabinet meeting, the final decision must be presented as unanimous and shouldered as a collective responsibility.