at a glance of yesterday’s star paper, the big and bold heading ’shows no mercy’ greeted me, followed by pictures pictures of tourists in KLCC, i knew the news would be about the haze, and i thought “ahh… good. show no mercy to ‘em indonesians!”, but on closer reading the line below the headline says ‘Azmi: M’sian firms should be punished if involved’.

huh? why so angry at the malaysians (public running business)? why not punish the indonesian government? why UMNO’s hero boy khairy didn’t organise a protest at the indonesian embassy… burn indonesian flag and all that? why UMNO’s chief, hishamuddin didn’t wave the keris at indonesia?

as we all know the haze has now become an annual event and is caused by open burning in indonesia. year in year out, it is the same thing. open burning in indonesia cause the haze… and what is our government doing about it? strict action should be taken upon the indonesian government! at least if they UMNO boys are too chicken (or selective?) to protest, our government should send a protest letter to indonesia saying enough is enough – do something! don’t let this be a yearly occurence!
granted ok, as the indonesian media reported, some of the culprits involved in the open burning are malaysian owned palm companies – that’s why our dear azmi, the natural resource and environment minister, was quick to say go ahead punish them because they are malaysians. however…

However, even the Indonesian Government has confirmed that the burning is coming from the traditional slash-and-burn activities of smallholders and not plantation companies.

… so most of the blame should go to the indonesian governemnt. correction. ALL the blame… because even if malaysian palm companies were involved in the open burning, the indonesian authorities should be responsibe to make sure they don’t repeat it year in and year out. i mean it doesn’t matter malaysian or indonesian companies are the culprits but it happened in indonesia, and indonesia should be the one responsible for taking actions on the culprits. the indonesian government had been very slack in the enforcement of catching those involved in the open burning (according to ktemoc, it is corruption!).

our R&E minister, azmi, seems to be so negative. when asked if our government should send a formal protest to the indonesian government, he said that the government could send any kind of note it wanted but…

“But I don’t think it would be of any use. The Indonesian Government is well aware of the problem and the only request Malaysia has is for the problem to be solved,”

then when asked if asean members would convene any sort of emergency meeting to discuss action against the haze, he said there was no point talking any more.

“What we need is action and enforcement,” he said.

action? then why don’t you start with a formal protest to the indonesian government? and maybe to go further, as ktemoc suggested, why don’t you bring indonesia to the world court?

ktemoc had also pointed out that indonesia is the only ASEAN country that had stubornly refused to sign the asean transboundary haze treaty. why don’t our government push them to sign it? taikor blogger, jeff ooi also mentioned the treaty. (good post there. you should go and read it).
forget the R&E minister now. let’s move on to our no. 2 man in the country – our DPM.

Najib also called for a stop to criticisms against Indonesia for failing to stop the forest fires.

He said Indonesia would not be able to tackle the forest fires without the help of other Asean members.

“We should in fact sympathise with Indonesia.”

can you believe that guy? oh god help me!! i nearly pengsan (faint) on reading that.

oh no… oh no… i think i AM going to faint because there is more… from jusuf, indonesia vice president. he says…

“Our only hope is for the rain to come and douse the flames,” he told reporters yesterday (Oct 7) at his office in Jakarta.

“Regional governors and leaders have been called up. Ministers have been ticked off several times by the President,” he said. “What else can we do?”

“our only hope is for the rain to come…” oh gawd, don’t tell me he was also on the verge of saying “our only hope is to pray to god.”? well, remember, that was what our very own PM told us to do so during last year’s haze.

“When something like this happens, we have to ask for God’s help” said Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.

*pengsan*

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phew! thank god i have my kwan loong medicated oil to revive me.

coming back to ktemoc’s suggestion of bringing indonesia to world court, someone wrote this interesting piece in his comments box:

A reader above wonders whether the famous SIL and his boss, the Youth Chief, would organise a demonstration with flag burning in front of the Indon Embassy to protest against the open burning and the consequent haze.

We all know the answer to that, of course.

No way would they dare to do so. Had it been a Western country that is involved no doubt you will see these fellows out in the streets yelling and flag burning and looking so fierce and “berani”, because they know the Westerners will keep a civilised silence and not retaliate. These cowardly bullies know whom they can push around and whom they can’t. But they know that if they mess around with the Indons these “wankers” (as the reader so aptly calls them) will know what is most likely to happen to them – their Indon cousins will come at them with parangs and sabits and slice their “wanks” off and they will become “wank-less” for ever more. That’s why you see them keeping quiet as a mouse in this case.

hmm… yeah i just realised UMNO youth had been very quiet on this issue. perhaps it is because they are too busy recruiting mat rempits to join them as members… you know lah, election coming.

picture right on top, shows haze in our country in the year 2001, taken from mongabay.