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Malaysia piles pressure on Indonesia over smog-belching fires
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Malaysia has stepped up pressure
on neighbouring Indonesia to tackle huge blazes tearing through its
rainforests and smothering Southeast Asia in smog, as fires typically started
to clear land for crops send diplomatic tensions soaring.
Burning forests to make way for farming is also thought to be behind the
enormous fires currently ripping through the Amazon in South America, and
experts believe they could have a serious impact on the global climate.
Malaysian Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin expressed concerns about the
impact of the smog and offered assistance to Jakarta to fight the fires
during a meeting with Indonesian officials Tuesday, according to a statement.
An official in Sarawak state on Borneo — where air quality dropped to very
unhealthy levels this week — was less diplomatic, demanding Indonesia send
face masks and medical supplies to Malaysia for those affected by the
pollution.
“Until they suffer economically, they will not take our complaints
seriously,” Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister James Masing was cited as saying by
the Malay Mail news portal on Wednesday.
“The Indonesian government must bear the full brunt of responsibility of
the haze in Sarawak.”
Air quality also plummeted to unhealthy levels in Kuala Lumpur this week as
toxic smog drifted in and shrouded the skyline, while over 400 schools were
closed in the Malaysian part of Borneo due to the smoke.
Borneo is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
Despite the pressure from its neighbour, Indonesia insisted Wednesday the
smog in Malaysia was caused by fires there.
A statement from the environment ministry and weather agency said the
number of “hotspots” — areas of intense heat detected by satellite which
typically indicate fires — in peninsular Malaysia had risen significantly.
However, the Malaysian environment ministry referred journalists to
information on hotspots published by the Singapore-based ASEAN Specialised
Meteorological Centre.
According to the centre, there were 861 hotspots on Indonesian Borneo and
the Indonesian island of Sumatra as of September 10, and just seven in the
whole of Malaysia.
Indonesia has deployed thousands of security forces who are fighting a
desperate battle against the blazes, which have reduced once-verdant areas of
forest to charred wastelands and darkened the skies with acrid smoke.
Indonesian forest fires are an annual problem during the dry season but
this year’s are the worst since 2015, when the region was choked by toxic
smoke for weeks.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1655 hrs