KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 – Umno Youth yesterday presented a memorandum to the Indonesian embassy here, urging the republic’s government to control and put out the forest fires which have caused the severe haze in Malaysia since the beginning of last week.
It also called for the parties responsible for the open fires in Indonesia to be investigated and charged with harsh penalties in accordance with the country’s laws.
“We hereby demand that the Indonesian government view this matter considerately and seriously.
“We request that the Indonesian government ratify the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution which came into force in 2003,” it said in the memorandum.
In the memorandum, Umno Youth expressed its protest over the lack of proactive action and weak enforcement on the part of the Indonesian authorities which it claimed contributed to the continuance of raging open burning in Sumatra.
It noted that Malaysians had been suffering from the haze in terms of health, emotion and the economy on a recurrent basis.
The education of 1.5 million students at 1,817 schools in five states has been disrupted following orders for the schools to close because of the haze, while the Muar and Ledang districts in Johor were now under a “haze emergency” after the Air Pollution Index reading surged to over 700 in these areas.
– BERNAMA
