BANGKOK - With Western countries and Japan seeking to get around China's domination of the crucial but mis-named "rare earths" sector, a potentially game-changing processing site slated for Malaysia looks set to become a major election issue as that country gears up to vote.
Opposition politicians and local activists from Kuantan - where Australia's Lynas Corp hopes to build a processing plant for rare earth minerals mined in Australia - are protesting against the project. The plant will provide "a crucial link in developing a non-Chinese supply of rare earth metals", according to Yaron Voronas of the Technology and Rare Earths Center, an online forum for the industry.
The fracas looks set to be entwined in Malaysia's fractious party politics as speculation grows that Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak will call national parliamentary elections soon, with whispers about an early June vote to coincide with school holidays. In the meantime, opposition-linked activists will stage renewed public demonstrations on April 28, after the findings of a parliamentary committee set up to assess electoral reform options were dismissed as "flawed" by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar hopes to make history by leading his opposition coalition to victory in the elections, an outcome that would mean a change of government away from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO)-led administrations that have ruled the country continuously since Malaysia's 1957 independence from Great Britain.
The opposition made gains in the last 2008 elections, but hopes of an outright win are stymied, they feel, by a rigged electoral system. After tens of thousands of Malaysians protested in Kuala Lumpur last July, seeking changes to how the country stages elections, the parliamentary committee recently issued 22 recommendations, including suggestions that the Election Commission operate separately from government and that the required election campaign period be extended to a still-short 10 days, up from the current seven.
Jarumemas: Optimist that the National Front will win in the general election. The oppositions are trying to smear the elections, the campaigns and the existing government.
