MP: Have one select committee to deal with environment

PETALING JAYA: Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh wants one of the new select committees to be set up by Parliament to include one on environment to tackle public concerns over the issue.

She added Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof recently announced that several more select committees will be set up in the upcoming Parliament meeting.

“I mentioned to him about the possibility of setting up one to deal with environmental issues. I am hopeful that this will be done,” she said in a phone interview yesterday.

She said there is growing awareness among Malaysians who want to see environmental issues tackled by Parliament.

Fuziah said Kuantan residents had expressed concerns over the recent announcement on the lifting of the moratorium on bauxite mining.

“The announcement of the lifting of the moratorium in absence of proper standard operating procedures has given rise to concerns,” she added.

To address this issue, Fuziah said she requested the parliamentary caucus to monitor Lynas Advanced Materials Plant in Pahang to extend their scope to include bauxite mining.

The Lynas Parliamentary Monitoring Caucus was set up on the initiative of several MPs on Dec 5 last year after learning that Dewan Rakyat had decided a day earlier to postpone the setting up of an official caucus for the purpose.

Fuziah also disputed a news report which stated that Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd successfully found commercial applications for its water leach purification (WLP) residue.

She said the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry had issued a statement that research involving WLP, which is a radioactive waste from the Lynas plant, cannot proceed and it must be sent back to its country of origin before the expiration of Lynas’ operating licence in September.

As such, she said Lynas should focus on sending the WLP radioactive waste back to Australia as ordered by the minister.