PETALING JAYA: Barisan Nasional has been proven right following the government's about-turn on Lynas, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.
The MCA president said Pakatan Harapan would have to walk back their criticism towards Barisan Nasional’s decision on the Australian rare earth mining firm when they were in power.
“They were wrong and Barisan was right,” Dr Wee said in a Facebook video on Oct 7 in which he had reviewed Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli’s podcast "Yang Bakar Menteri" which featured Datuk Eric See-To who is also known as Lim Sian See, as a guest.
“I know it is a bitter truth for Rafizi and his friends to swallow. I am not rebutting anyone on this matter, but I just want to remind them of what happened before 2018 whereby my colleagues in MCA and BN were repeatedly criticised with baseless accusations without any sympathy.
“Those who criticised us in the past have now made a u-turn and agreed with what we did previously and continued the idea we came up with,” he added.
He also asked if Pakatan was willing to issue a sincere apology on the matter.
Rafizi had said in the podcast that the matter had to be looked at in the right context. He also said the previous consideration was whether Malaysia should become a dumping ground for foreign countries.
See-To, who was the former Barisan Nasional strategic communication deputy director, had also said that decisions made by then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak were criticised. However, the same decisions were seen in a positive light when it was done by the unity government.
Dr Wee said Pakatan had condemned Lynas’s presence in Malaysia before they became the government in 2018 but Lynas was given a licence renewal when Pakatan was in the government.
Under the conditions of its licence renewed under the then Pakatan government, Lynas was expected to develop a permanent disposal facility (PDF) to store its water leach purification residue.
It must also ensure that a cracking and leaching plant outside Malaysia would be in operation before July 2023.
“PH 1.0 (government) had allowed Lynas to continue to operate without having to send the waste outside of Malaysia,” he said.
Dr Wee also said Pakatan leaders should be on the same page before making confusing statements.
