Haze displays malaise

26 June 2013

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Malaysiakini
If the world needed further proof that Malaysia’s BN regime preys while the rakyat pays, it’s this latest outbreak of so-called haze.

Behind its smoke-screens and shadow-plays, this ‘crooked’ government, like its counterpart in Indonesia, couldn’t give a damn about the well-being of its citizens as long as its members and cronies are free to continue in their corrupt and otherwise criminal ways.

In fact these crooks are so contemptuous of the people that the Indonesian Environment Minister, Balthasar Kambuaya, had the gall to initially accuse Singaporeans of being “cry-babies” for complaining of the suffocating smoke.

But of course what Singaporeans, Malaysians and a great many Indonesians are actually choking on are the noxious clouds of corporate and official corruption.

The whole world knows, and has for years, that the haze is not just the product of ‘burning-off’ by a ragtag bunch of small farmers, but wholesale illegal clearance of what’s left of Sumatra’s peat forests by the managements of massive palm-oil plantations.

And that many of these environmental vandals are so-called government-linked corporations which the respective ruling regimes involved are coy about naming because they and their cronies are the principal beneficiaries.

Thus the newly and allegedly fraudulently ‘elected’ Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has responded to the haze by retreating into an apparent daze, leaving his so-called Natural Resources and Environment Minister G Palanivel, to try and quell the bad-publicity blaze – which Palanivel finally did after dithering for days, but only fanned the flames by doing it on Facebook instead of facing the people in person.

Cough-up names, gov’t told

With Najib himself later finally emerging from his strategic daze, or perhaps overseas holidays away from the haze, to emit one of his customary smoke-and-mirrors remarks to the effect that “all ministries and agencies involved in haze disaster management at the federal, state and district levels must plan and take the needed measures to ensure safety and public health is protected.”

And according to BN mouthpiece ‘news’ agency Bernama, he added that “the guidelines on the actions to take to manage a haze disaster were already in place and that all relevant agencies must discharge their duties accordingly.”

In other words, it was nothing but Najib’s customary discharge of gusts of hot air, as to “plan” and “take measures” to protect public health and safety would require the naming, shaming and prosecution the many corrupt BN-crony companies responsible for the people’s annual choke on their smoke.

Of course the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore all know very well who the culprits are, but are maintaining a breathless silence in order to protect the guilty deny their own complicity in this atrocity.

But the truth may soon emerge from the fog of obfuscation, as there are growing calls for the BN regime to cough-up the names of the companies causing the haze.

The most definite of these demands to date has come from Malaysian NGO Memacu Arus Perjuangan (MAP), whose deputy president Ally Harzan Hashim has given Environment Minister Palanivel a 48-hour ultimatum to name the Malaysian companies involved in the ongoing haze crisis, or else.

According to Malaysiakini, a lawyer for MAP, Ahmad Jufliz Faiza, has said that if the minister fails to reveal the name of the offending companies, the group intends to bring the government to court for failing in its duty of care to Malaysian citizens.

Another MAP lawyer, Patrick Dass, “questioned whether the government had vested interests in the companies involved, judging from its inaction although the haze has been a recurring problem for about 15 years.”

Ally Harzan was quoted as saying that the MAP has “several suspects,” and is working with Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) and environmental NGOs in Singapore and Indonesia for confirmation on which companies are involved.

And Ahmad Jufliz added that “we know the names of the companies, but we have to confirm this. That is why we request the government through the minister to give us the names, while we are also liaising with other NGOs to get their names.”

BN regime ‘failed to deliver’

Meanwhile, Malaysian Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam has stated that Indonesia must act quickly against those responsible for the haze situation even if it involves Malaysian companies,” but added in typically hazy BN fashion that there is “no evidence” of the involvement of such Malaysian involvement.

And the ever-BN-friendly ‘news’ agency Bernama has reported that the Association of Plantation Investors of Malaysia in Indonesia (Apimi) has denied that any Malaysian-owned companies are involved in the haze situation.

Though there must be very few Malaysians remaining who are prepared to take any BN-connected spokesperson at his or her word, given that the regime has denied any involvement in literally countless scandals from all the massive financial and electoral frauds that have occurred under its watch to the hundreds of suspicious deaths suffered at the hands of its police and anti-corruption commission (MACC).

The regime has also conspicuously failed to deliver on a single, solitary one of Najib’s promises to “transform” Malaysia into the “world’s best democracy” with “zero tolerance of corruption” and fair and equitable treatment for all.

And despite Najib’s alleged eagerness to unite Malaysian society, much has been made lately both by him and other BN mouthpieces likeUtusan Malaysiaand former Court of Appeal Judge Mohd Noor Abdullah of the alleged “betrayal” of the Malays by Chinese Malaysians who voted for the opposition in the recent general election.

A claim that is an attempted diversion from the fact that it is BN itself that is the malaise that betrays Malaysians of all races and creeds, including and even especially Malays, as both evidenced and symbolised year after year after year by this accursed, killer haze.