World Environment Day Message by Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 5^th June 2011: 

The BN Federal Government of Malaysia should learn from Germany and Penang by banning high risk nuclear energy and rare earth industry to ensure not just green and sustainable growth but also the health and safety of our children 

The BN Federal Government of Malaysia should learn from Germany and Penang by banning high risk nuclear energy and rare earth industry to ensure not just green and sustainable growth but also the health and safety of our children. Germany made a historic decision to close down all its nuclear power plants by 2022, despite relying on 23% of its power needs on nuclear energy.

In contrast when Germany is closing down all its power plants, the Malaysian government is intent on building 2 nuclear power plants by 2022. Why is there any necessity to build nuclear power plants to generate more power to be sold to TNB that TNB does not need, when Malaysia enjoys an energy reserve margin that is the highest in the world of 52.6%?

This is the reason why Penang state government had officially written to Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui that Penang would bar and ban any nuclear plants in Penang. Peter Chin in his reply had agreed that Penang will not be the nuclear site chosen but still chose to justify the necessity of a nuclear power plant elsewhere in Malaysia. Clearly the site of the nuclear power plant will be a BN state since only BN-controlled state will give its approval.

Malaysia should learn from the painful lessons of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan despite the high technological expertise of the Japanese. In contrast, Malaysia has no expertise whatsoever in handling nuclear power. No one has any confidence that Malaysia can handle build and manage nuclear plant safely when it can not build stadiums or bus terminals without the roof collapsing. Even the Parliament roof leaked after a RM100 million renovation.

Further Penang has also opposed any rare earth processing plant such as the one in Kuantan under Lynas Corporation. DAP regrets that BN government has shown that it is not committed to green and sustainable growth but instead is willing to sacrifice people's health for profits.

World Environment Day is the biggest and most widely celebrated global event for positive environmental action, empowering people to be part of a movement to create a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and their future generations.

This year, World Environment Day puts the focus on forests with the theme "Forests: Nature at Your Service", to encourage forest conservation and sustainable consumption for green growth, in support of the UN's International Year of Forests initiative.

Sahabat Alam Malaysia(SAM) has revealed that the Lynas project was fast-tracked for approval by the Pahang State DoE. The DoE received the Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment(PEIA) on the 21st of January 2008 and approved it in early February. Why is DOE acting with unholy haste to give their approval for such a complex project involving potentially radioactive hazards with a very vague waste management, storage and disposal proposal?

DAP will support the signature campaign opposed to the rare earth processing plant and proposed construction of two nuclear power plants by 2021. We will also ask all members of Parliament including MPs from BN at the coming Parliamentary meeting on 13 June to sign the petition to show their commitment to build a cleaner, greener and safer Malaysia together.

*Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary General & MP for Bagan