In the calm afternoon with prevailing winds, some 50 participants stuck the unipole banners bearing anti-Lynas slogans into the sand at the beach close to the Gebeng industrial park where the controversial rare earth plant is set to begin operations.
Led
by Himpunan Hijau chairperson Wong Tack, the crowd dressed in green
broke into a round of chants of "Stop Lynas; Lynas Get out" before
planting the banners on the seafront.Made using the traditional colour of mourning, the black banners with white wordings read among others, ""13th GE, we bury BN, bury Lynas", "Lynas get out now", "No Lynas on Malaysian soil".
Officiating the ceremony, host and activist Hishamuddin Rais announced, "This is to symbolise that the people of Malaysia have come firm and strong to support the anti-Lynas cause."
The organiser also placed some 15 coffins under a gigantic banner of Lynas, to be torched later at the "Flame of Anger Rising- Burn Lynas into Ashes" session.
Protestors gathered at the popular beach outside Kuantan in a carnival-like atmosphere, with numerous canopies setup to sell green T-shirts, food, ceramah CDs and soft toys.
With
the sea of state flags, green flags and black banners waving in the
sky, many brought their family members to support the what is deemed as a
major sign of public disapproval of the Parliamentary Select Committee
(PSC)'s Tuesday announcement to grant a temporary operating licence to
the Australia miner. Also at the rally were PKR parliamentarian for Indera Mahkota Azan Ismail, DAP parliamentarian for Triang Leong Ngah Ngah, PAS environment bureau chief Zulkefly Mohd Omar, Stop Lynas Coalition Sim Soon Hiong and Stop Bukit Aman Gold-Mining committee members.
Upbeat on turnout
Wong, when commenting on the morning's low turn-out, which had fallen short of the 10,000 target, expressed confidence in the crowding growing by nightfall when a slew of culminating events had been scheduled to take place.
In his rousing speech earlier, he urged the crowd to intensify their struggle to halt the RM700 million plant.
"We know that we all are here to reject Lynas, and to achieve that we need to reject this government. "Many people said we are exhausted, but this is the just the beginning. Let's be united and embark on this fight from Balok to the whole Malaysia," he said to the cheering crowd.
Meanwhile, Atan urged the people to exercise their electoral right to "put the last nail into the Lynas coffin".
"This is a long overdue fight. We went to the court, we held protests, we have done everything.
"The last resort is now in our hands. Come the next general election, we need to vote the BN out," he said.
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