Maybe we have to see the bright side to the haze enveloping our lives and thoughts. In this seeming blindness, most motorists can't see too far, so they won't be bothered by the number of AP and non-AP cars on the road. Or any other shortcomings of the Barisan Nasional government.

Truth be told, the wise people that meet for the Wednesday morning meetings at Putrajaya are playing for time. In a rainforest country, surely rain will come and once it does, the skies will clear, and so will the mind of the everyday Malaysian.

There are a lot of upset twenty- and thirty-somethings out there. You probably have vulnerable children and elders under your care, and a disappointing feeling in you that you are completely helpless to do anything except buy some masks at the nearest pharmacy.

The problem and the possibility of this continuous harm traveling over through the Malacca Straits has been going on over then a decade, and therefore the lack of a policy to the situation is shocking at best.

Sumatra and the other plantation islands of the Indonesian archipelago have two sides to them:

  • the role of government in managing the sector and enforcing the law and;

  • the firms that drive these acts and that includes Malaysian players.

    • Indonesia is slightly weak in terms of enforcing something that will affect the rice bowls of its poor people so perhaps it might be necessary to deal with the companies that broach the land for gain. Maybe even quicker, and more in the hands of the Malaysian government, is to investigate the number of Malaysian-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures in Sumatra, in terms of numbers and acreage.

    It would be interesting if the total amount of contribution by Malaysian companies to this fiasco is made for the public record.

    And at the same time, the contrary theory that some damage is coming from the Putrajaya zone may have credibility since there are allegations of clearing for housing projects on peat forest for the past few years, near the Puchong border.

    Local communities are left out of the local planning for environmental care, like whether to decide on a landfill or another alternative and the funding for it. They are out of the proverbial loop.

    No cabinet can absolve itself of criticism if the situation has been growing worse for more than a decade. Criticising Jakarta can only hold if there is a willingness to show the role Malaysians and their business interests in Sumatra.

    There also must be full disclosure of local environmental degradations as known to the Malaysian authorities.

    All the information can only empower our people to know where they stand and to form their own intelligent position on the matter. Further, let's involve the community at their local stage to affect their own environment for the better (where was that argument for local elections again?)

    The clock is ticking and the message is sitting outside our homes right now. Or we can focus on the idiot box until the rain comes. Time to decide, I guess.