What do we get from LYNAS?

The government is now fighting hard to ensure the Lynas project can be operational as it was initially planned. By the way, the factory is almost completed and there is no way back for the government despite the protest by the people all over the country, not confined to those living nearby Gebeng where the factory is located.

The Mentri Besar of Pahang even took a swipe on those who claimed that property prices dropped at Kuantan, arguing that the property prices had risen instead due to the setting up of Lynas factory. The fact is what do we actually get from Lynas? We import the rare earth from its country of origin far away by ship, then transport them via Kuantan port by trucks to Gebeng, creating a few hundreds jobs, making millions of dollars for the Australian company LYNAS but leaving behind millions of tonnes of waste which are potentially harmful even for our future generations.

There are possibilities that the waste materials could seep into the nearby Balok River and then the whole ecosystem will be affected, the fish, animal, human, plants and everything else you name it. Rare earths are  by itself harmless as what pointed out by the government but they are mostly mixed with radioactive substances that's why an extraction and separation process is required.

Many of us who are not staying nearby the factory area couldn’t be bothered by the protests against the setting up of Lynas. But come to think of it, what do we really get from Lynas? It is worthwhile for just being a country absorbing all the radioactive waste materials from Australia by merely creating a few hundred jobs?