Fuziah Salleh is currently the elected vice-president of People’s Justice Party (PKR). She has spearheaded the “Stop Rare Earth” campaign after being elected as MP for Kuantan in 2008. Fuziah first parliamentary speech to raise concern over the Lynas Advance Materials Plant (LAMP) project in Kuantan was on 18 November 2008.
“Concerned Citizen of Kuantan” is a civil society group initiated by Fuziah in 2008 to discuss the LAMP issues and to distribute leaflets to create public awareness in Kuantan. Today, “Concerned Citizen of Kuantan” supported by Fuziah has gradually evolved into “Save Malaysia” which is formed in March 2011, and other stop rare earth refinery civil society groups.
The problem in 2008-2010 was only the local Chinese media picked up the LAMP issues, while both the English and Malay media didn’t. In 2009, both NTV7 and TV2 covered the LAMP problems in Kuantan via their Mandarin programs.
Lately, public awareness has been increased through petition collecting, leafleting, briefings, social networking and a civil protest movement against the hazardous rare earth refinery.
LAMP issues have now attracted the attentions of the local media and also the international media – both Al-Jazeera 101 East and Australian Network Newsline broadcasted their programs observing the present predicament of Kuantan’s people over Lynas in May 2011.
Also, Fuziah presented the rare earth refinery case study that have far-reaching consequences on Kuantan communities’ civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the environment at the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum in Jakarta, Indonesia on 2 May 2011.
Lastly, Fuziah wishes to express her gratitude to all who have been kind enough to share their intellectual knowledge and been supportive throughout the “Stop Rare Earth” campaign.
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