MP Fuziah Salleh's response letter to Nick Curtis accepting his invitation but has requested for a public discussion involving the media

1. Mr. Nicholas Curtis AM
Executive Chairman
Lynas Corporation Ltd.
22nd June 2011
Dear Mr. Nicholas Curtis,
I thank you for your letter dated 21st June 2011. I am indeed honoured that you have chosen
to engage finally with me as the elected representative for the Kuantan residents.
I welcome your efforts to engage in meaningful dialogues and your response to the call for
more transparent engagements by the public. Before I reply to your invitation to engage in a
discussion to address my concerns, please allow me to correct a few misperceptions of me
or my statements that you have put down in your letter.
First and foremost I would like to correct your statement in the letter that I “chose not to
attend your past public briefings in the year 2009 (organised by fox communication together
with PKNP & AELB) due to the fact that I think that it was not a credible engagement
process”. That is totally untrue. As a matter of fact on that particular occasion I had actually
pre-informed the organizing committee that I was engaged with a prior commitment
overseas but nevertheless, I had delegated the important task to my two capable assistants
and they were accompanied by Dr. Jayabalan, a public health expert from USM as well as
being a member of SAM (Sahabat Alam Malaysia). The three of them were delegated as my
representatives. That particular briefing cannot be considered as a public engagement
process as it was only targeted to the selected few ie MPs, Aduns and Head of Government
Departments. The feedback which I received from my team regarding the briefing was that it
had failed to address many of the concerns raised. As for Lynas’s outreach program and
briefing to the public together with the Malaysian Nature Society in late 2008, and Lynas’s
efforts at planting trees in Kuantan, Yes, I do think that it was just a PR exercise on the part
of Lynas.
Lynas went completely silent after that briefing session, which for me goes to show that
Lynas lacked the commitments to address the concerns which were raised. Lynas had also
halted the project by early 2010 due to financial issues but then later was back in business.
For Lynas to argue that the briefing early in the year 2009 was a public engagement event is
totally unsubstantiated because there were so many unresolved concerns which were not
addressed then and the situation remains till now. The presentation of a concrete waste
management plan is one example.
With the lack of transparency and public engagement, coupled with research conducted by
my team, plus advise offered to me by specialist of public health, environmental engineers,
metal scientists, environmentalist and many other experts from various other disciplines,
both locally as well as from overseas, particularly from Australia itself, I am now even more
convinced that my initial concerns were indeed real and that it is thus my duty to raise the
Pejabat Ahli Parlimen Kuantan
A137 Tingkat 2, Jalan Beserah, 25300 Kuantan, Pahang. Tel/Faks: 09-5137970 Emel: fuziah99@yahoo.com
www.fuziahsalleh.my

2. issues further to the Parliament of Malaysia. I was also convinced further on the issue when
the government authorities had time and again failed to make public the relevant documents
and information on the LAMP project, in particular the PEIA and RIA. It was only upon the
arrival of the IAEA team end of May 2011 that the documents were made available for public
viewing, which again showed the lack of accountability and transparency by the government
agencies in addressing an issue so pertinent to the people of Kuantan.
At this juncture in time, the AELB director himself had announced that the contents of the
RIA report is not satisfactory. On the claims by Lynas that RM 50 million has been paid for
some kind of deposit for research, which the DG of AELB has also refuted, certainly has
added to the Kuantan folk’s concerns. Yesterday 21st June 2011, the President of Penang
Consumer Association had issued a statement that the RIA report is full of holes.
I must stress that I do not take this matter personal against any individual in the
establishment of Lynas but am merely performing my duty as a Member of Parliament in
raising any disparity in terms of execution or enforcement of the legal requirement in my
constituency. I still hold on to my statement that an independent panel is indeed needed to
review the safety of the Lynas in a broad spectrum but for MITI’s decision to engage IAEA as
the experts, where it is openly known that IAEA is a promoter of nuclear industry, shall not
be defined as impartial evaluation or study. I do not have any doubts whatsoever on their
credibility in the aspect of their specialisation and expertise, but I will reiterate again that they
do not however represent many other disciplines such as Public Health and Environmental
concerns.
The Malaysian Medical Association, Malaysian BAR Council, CAP, SAM and many other
independent groups had presented their views as well as their substantiated study on LAMP
project, but on the other hand Lynas apart from the Government Agencies had so far failed
to engage, which you yourself admitted in your letter and had thus failed to contribute
towards creating the public awareness and understanding on the matter. The previous
recent public briefing organised by AELB and PKNP in March 2011 has failed in addressing
the concern of the people. Furthermore the scheduled 8 briefings were stopped indefinitely
after 2 sessions. The information provided by Lynas so far has not been in depth and has
often contradicted other renowned and credible international research on the subject of rare
earth refinery and rare earth processing. This has certainly made a mockery of the Kuantan
people and the Kuantan people’s intelligence.
I would like express my sincere heartfelt concern and sympathy with regards to the incident
that happened to the personnel of your company. This shouldn’t have happened to anyone
who lives in Kuantan, as we have always pride ourselves in claiming that Kuantan is
peaceful and tranquillity has always been the trademark of our township. We have been the
choice of tourist destination for those who seek for a perfect getaway from their bustling city
life.
The incident above had shown and are indeed proofs on how the presence of LAMP in
Kuantan can actually bring about instability to the community. Similar show of violence was
displayed during the IAEA team visit, where a Pro Lynas group had showed up in force in
front of Hyatt hotel, hurling abuse, threat and racist remark, in the open eye of the police. Mr
Andansura, the representative of the residents from Balok, the group that calls themselves
BADAR was manhandled and his car was kicked and windscreen broken by the group of so
called Lynas Supporters. That same particular concern led another NGO, Save Malaysia,
Stop Lynas! group to cancel their appointment with IAEA. I hope your personnel had lodge a
police report to save guards his security. If you do need further assistance, our
Parliamentary Service Centre is always prepared to assist in terms of ensuring the report is
properly handled.
Pejabat Ahli Parlimen Kuantan
A137 Tingkat 2, Jalan Beserah, 25300 Kuantan, Pahang. Tel/Faks: 09-5137970 Emel: fuziah99@yahoo.com
www.fuziahsalleh.my

3. For your information, the NGO groups had displayed good discipline in conducting their
rights to protest peacefully, even after being instigated by the group who claims to be Lynas
Supporter. Even when my team and I wanted to enter the building to present our case to
IAEA, we were received with similar rowdy treatment. I hope they are not in any way linked
to your company directly, which I fear may cause more distrust within the local community
towards your organization.
Thus I support your response to the call by residents for more transparency through open
engagements and process of meaningful dialogues. I therefore graciously accept your
invitation to discuss constructively the issues that are of great concerns to my constituents
as well as to the residents of greater Kuantan.
Also in the true spirit of transparency, may I suggest that the discussion between the two of
us be open to observers from amongst the stakeholders as well as the members of the
media.
Since Parliament is currently in session right now, may I also suggest that the date Friday 1 st
July as the date to be set aside for the discussion.
There are other statements in your letter where you claimed that my statement regarding
Lynas using Chinese Standards is untrue. I assure you that I will not speak unless I have
evidence and facts. But let’s discuss the matter during our open meeting. I will come forth
with evidence to my arguments then. While it is correct for you to say that my initial concerns
are those regarding the waste management plans, currently I am also adding to my list of
concerns to include the processing and operation part of LAMP. There are also other
concerns such as how LAMP will affect the health of the public, the damage it will do to the
environment, how it will create a negative perception to our tourism industry, the
contamination of water sources that will destroy Kuantan’s fishing industry as well as the
seafood industry for Kuantan and the whole region
I sincerely hope that on behalf of Lynas, you will agree to this proposal for an open
discussion. I will continue to promote positive engagement within the people of Kuantan and
I look forward to your amicable reply.
Regards
Puan Hajah Fuziah Salleh,
MP for Kuantan.
Parliament of Malaysia.
Pejabat Ahli Parlimen Kuantan
A137 Tingkat 2, Jalan Beserah, 25300 Kuantan, Pahang. Tel/Faks: 09-5137970 Emel: fuziah99@yahoo.com
www.fuziahsalleh.my