In reaction to news reports on the authorities' decision to allow open burning of padi stalks at certain hours, I find it absolutely appalling!

I remember when we had made a lot of noise over the haze problem, we pointed our fingers at the open burning by Indonesian farmers. We were literally choked by the haze.

We requested the Indonesians to stop the practice of open burning to clear the land. But, why are we allowing our farmers to do the same?

Why is there "scheduled burning hours" allocated to the padi farmers? Hasn't the government banned open burning? How did the authorities schedule the burning hours? Is open burning after the government recommended time of 6pm more or less hazardous?

If the basis for making the time-recommendation is grounded on the fact that there are less cars on the highway after 6pm, it is extremely irresponsible! It does not matter if there is only one car or 100 cars using that stretch after 6pm. The safety of every motorist must be kept.

While the livelihood of farmers is very important, human lives are even more so. Open burning of that scale is just simply too big. The government should handle this problem more rationally.

The government should really find an alternative to open burning. Please! Our ozone can't take it anymore.