Moments after tabling the parliamentary select committee’s (PSC) report on the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (Lamp), panel chief and Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said he is willing to live next to the plant.

NONE "Why not?" Khaled told reporters at the Parliament lobby when asked if he would move next door to the RM700 million rare earths processing plant in Gebeng, Kuantan.

He defended the report, saying that these were merely recommendations and that the government would have the final say.

"We are just a parliamentary committee. We have made our recommendations but it is up to the government to implement all of it, half of it or (to decide) how long it will take to implement (these)," Khaled said.

NONE During the debate in the Dewan Rakyat, Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) described the report as mere "whitewash", which led to BN MPs standing up to protest.

"The report seems to have accepted everything Lynas said. There are about 200 pages in the report and half of it is propaganda taken from Lynas pamphlets," Chua declared.

He said the PSC report failed to address several pertinent questions such as evaluating the risks of the project and instead declared "everything is okay and the only problem was its public relations".

NONE At this, Abdul Rahman Dahlan (BN-Kota Belud, right ) shot back that if Pakatan Rakyat had not boycotted the PSC , its concerns could have been raised during the panel’s meetings.

"All this should have been brought up in the committee but Pakatan chose to boycott it... condemning the report today is hypocrisy. You do not have the locus standi to stand here and condemn the report," he said.

However, Khalid Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) defended the opposition coalition, pointing out that the boycott was prompted by the terms of reference, which were meant to prove that the plant is safe instead of seeking the truth.

‘Failure to compare standards’

Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj (PSM-Sungei Siput) said the report did not compare local standards with those imposed by Australia when Lynas was granted a similar licence to set up Lamp in its home country.

NONE "In Australia, the conditions were for any waste water to be stored in a pond and for the water to be allowed to evaporate. In Gebeng, the water will be dumped into the river," Jeyakumar said.

Responding to criticism from Pakatan MPs, Ismail Mohamed Said (BN-Kuala Krau) pointed out that even Pakatan's own lawmaker, Che Rosli Che Mat (PAS-Hulu Langat), had agreed that the plant is safe.

Sensing that his views were being dragged back and forth, Che Rosli clarified: "As a nuclear scientist, I stand by my statement that radiation-wise, it is safe. But in other aspects, such as residue management, I leave it to other experts.”

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