At the moment, we are all suffering from two very damaging and completely unnecessary afflictions. The first is the constant bickering and wrangling that is going on between lots of politicians who are mostly overpaid, under-worked, inexperienced, corrupt and completely unable to serve the real needs of the people of Malaysia.

But whilst there is all this energy and verbal diarrhoea being expended on 'who did what and when and to whom', not one of the politicians has ever done anything substantial or material about the horrendous haze that has once again blanketed the country and is seriously damaging the health of all those who are forced to breathe air to stay alive. What future damage this is going to cause to the life expectancy and health of the children does not bear thinking about.

But what have the politicians done? Nothing except have meetings and make idiotic public statements.

Well, here is a practical and possibly even profitable suggestion from a mere member of the public. The government should immediately purchase two or three large water bombing aircraft that can very effectively assist in the dousing of the wild and deliberate fires that are now being started all over Southeast Asia. These aircraft could be either lent or leased to neighbouring countries during times when serious fires rage. At other times, they could be very easily and rapidly converted to cargo carriers for remote areas or for use by the military.

A small fleet of such aircraft would cost no more than a few million to lease and operate and yet would bring untold relief to the suffering of the people of Malaysia. And if economists wish to complain about the cost then try to figure out the amount of money that will be saved by reducing the haze and thereby reducing the terrible cost in health treatment that Malaysia will pay now and in the future as its citizens get increased and possibly fatal respiratory diseases.

Personally, I think that purchase of such aircraft and the consequent reduction in haze will produce much greater benefits for the health of our children than any sports academy in London costing RM500 million or more.

This haze has been going on since at least 1997 and yet nothing material or practical or useful has been done by our political leaders. Well, should we really be that surprised when we see the kind of people in Parliament?

When the haze arrives many of them, like the glorious leader Taib Mahmud from Sarawak, get on a plane to the West to 'seek advice' on what to do and remain there until the haze here goes.