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Haze will stay so long as big businesses are protected
Published:  Jun 24, 2013 8:57 AM
Updated: 3:43 AM

YOURSAY 'The government has got lots of stake in the plantations in Sumatra and will never be sincere to put a stop to the problem.'

PM declares haze emergency in Muar and Ledang

your say Pemerhati: If a foreign company commits a crime in a country, then that country will normally carry out an investigation and punish the guilty company.

It looks like some big Indonesian and foreign companies have been responsible for the fires in Indonesia for the past several years and the resultant haze.

All these years, the top Indonesians leaders have been giving pathetic excuses like they are investigating the matter and that some foreign companies are involved.

The fact that the Indonesian government has not brought any of these guilty companies to justice indicates that for some reason the Indonesian authorities do not wish to punish the guilty companies and thus put an end to this practice.

Until the attitude of the Indonesian government changes, the people in Indonesia and neighbouring countries will continue to suffer.

Game Changer: If this were to happen in the United States, President Barrack Obama would have appeared on live telecast to assure the people that actions are being taken, and report the situation to the people on regular basis.

In China, the PM would have risked his health to visit the area affected by the disaster. Is PM Najib Razak's voice too divine for us to hear that he had to ask that Natural Resources and Environment Minister G Palanivel to relay his message?

Swipenter: Nato - no action, talk only. Have we not gotten enough of this broken record coming from the Umno-dominated government?

A state of emergency was declared using Facebook. That beats a lot of records for being stupid, irresponsible and indifferent. Where are and what are the actions from the authorities to deal with the state of emergency?

Ksn: Palanivel, why are saying the National Security Council (NSC) should look into in to cloud seeding only now?

Why did you not order them to do it much earlier? Why did they not act immediately as the haze situation warranted this?

Why is the department waiting for somebody's directive to act on this health hazard? Some government, some ministers, some departments we have. Who are they working for?

Mohican: As usual, the politicians do ‘tai chi', blaming or hiding facts from public, while we ordinary citizens choke.

Why don't you start giving out masks especially to the poor, help Indonesia put out the fires and go after those hiding behind the corporate veil?

Now is the time to be decisive, instead of just giving us delayed, useless information from your air-conditioned premises paid by the choking rakyat.

Anonymous_40f4: The government may be giving out free masks like in Singapore but you will have to collect it from the BN office in your neighbourhood. And the masks may carry the 1Malaysia logo.

Matthias Schilling: The PM and ex-PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad should take responsibility for this haze.

Indonesia and Malaysian companies involved in plantation burning are trying to play hide and seek and they have been doing so for the past 16 years.

It is very sad, this kind of plantation burning is very unhealthy for humans and it has destroyed the environment as well.

Anonymous_3e86 : Every year during the dry season, the haze blankets our country. Some years are worse than others.

This year it's bad. Our government has just declared an emergency in Muar and Ledang. But what good does it do? We still have to breathe in the toxic air.

The culprits (mainly oil palm plantation companies) do not get severely punished for their crime. Perhaps a few thousand ringgit fine is all they get, and it's back to the same routine again the next year.

When it comes to big business, the government is not willing to come down hard on them. These businesses are owned by well-connected VVIPs. The ordinary rakyat suffer instead while these VVIPs jet away to somewhere else where the air is cleaner and safer.

Anonymous_40f4: It is the same annual ‘wayang' (show) of this Umno-BN government. They are never serious in putting a stop to this haze by Indonesia.

As usual, to fool the rakyat, they talk about cloud seeding, sending high-level delegations to Indonesia, saying that they will raise the issue at the coming Asean meeting, and now declaring emergency.

The government plays all this ‘sandiwara' in their media until the haze goes away after inflicting maximum damage on the rakyat's health.

Only a change in government will bring a permanent end to this haze problem. The present government has got lots of stake in the plantations in Sumatra and will never be sincere to put a stop to the problem.

Onyourtoes: Ultimately, all the companies will be protected, and nothing will ever happen to them for this is how the business-government nexus works. This is how buying influence and corruption work.

This is how privatising profit and socialising costs work. This how third world tribalism works. This is how baloney works.


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