— Tay Tian Yan
The Malaysian Insider
February 24, 2012

Feb 24 — I recently met director Tan Chui Mui. She told me she had moved her studio from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

KL is too small in the world of film-making; Beijing is somewhat larger.

Tan needs a bigger space to develop her career and fulfil her dreams.

She has won several awards in international film festivals. She is so young and there are lots of potentials she could exploit outside the country.

She does come back to her native Kuantan every now and then, not so much for making a movie, but for her hometown.

Lynas Corp plans to set up a massive rare earth refinery plant in Kuantan, and Putrajaya has issued a conditional temporary licence to the Australia-based firm.

Waste materials from the processing of rare earth could be radioactive, everyone knows that. Both the Malaysian government and Lynas have reassured the public that necessary precautions would be adopted to ensure zero leakage of radioactive substances.

Kuantan residents do not feel assured. They are not willing to stake their health and safety.

Tan took the lead in opposing the proposed plant by making a short documentary “Survival Guide in Radioactive Village,” which has been screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival and soon at other film festivals worldwide.

During the Chinese New Year, she organised a candlelight vigil at Teluk Chempedak near Kuantan to protest against the rare earth plant.

Despite her age, her powerful resolution and determination have moved the hearts of many.

Indeed, the world outside is indefinitely large while her hometown is so small. Just because it is small, and is the one and only, it has to be protected at all costs.

Even if the rare earth plant is certified safe, unforeseen circumstances could still happen. And if it does, it could wreak dreadful havoc on the little town.

Australia spans 7.7 million square kilometres. It is the sixth largest landmass in the world and about 20 times bigger than Malaysia, although it only has 22 million inhabitants, fewer than us.

With such a so much land and much of uninhabited, it wouldn’t be hard for Lynas to pick a place to set up a rare earth plant in Australia. In the event of a leakage, the destruction could be contained to minimum.

Kuantan is just a small town of about 30km in diameter but inhabited by some 700,000 people who have nowhere to escape if any untoward incident takes place.

By choosing Kuantan over Australia and transporting the raw rare earth ore over more than 5,000km across the sea, Lynas will have to incur much higher costs and time.

Australians should have a keener business sense than this, I believe.

They definitely do. But they also place their homeland’s safety above monetary gains.

To set up a rare earth plant in Australia, Lynas may need to pass the rigid environmental evaluation as well as acceptance from the general public.

While Malaysia has proposed that the radioactive waste be transported back to Australia, the same might not be practical as cross border transportation of industrial waste is strictly prohibited under the international law, while Canberra has made it very clear that it will not take back the waste.

Malaysia is neither a rare earth producer nor a major consumer. To make the country a transit point for international rare earth supply will only do Kuantan more harm than good.

Perhaps Lynas should turn back and look inward, given the fact that its homeland is blessed with such an enormous land mass. — mysinchew.com