Will the haze prove as threatening to tourism in Malaysia as it surely is to the health of all those of us who live here, and to the credibility of official Malaysian and Indonesian "efforts" to combat it?

The picture on the front page of a newspaper last Thursday provided a graphic response to the question, showing a tourist on the observation level of the KL tower snapping a picture of a poster portraying a clear panorama of the city, while his companions at the viewing windows glumly gaze out at nothing...but nothing.

But even hazier than the air in Malaysia has been lately is the atmosphere of mystery concerning who is causing the problem, and how they get away with it year after year.