PUTRAJAYA, June 26- Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel will head to Indonesia today to meet his counterpart Balthasar Kambuaya, to find an immediate solution to the blazes which have shrouded Malaysia in thick haze, besides Singapore and Indonesia itself.
Palanivel said Malaysia was ready to offer technical support to step up action to fight the blazes which resulted in worsening air quality in this country.
“First, we need immediate action to put out the fires. We are ready to provide assistance to Indonesia in the form of manpower, technical expertise, equipment, cloud seeding and water bombers.
“The fact is, the haze has become a national issue. The haze has gone right up to Borneo as there are a lot of hot spots in Indonesia. We need to discuss to resolve the problem,” he said at a press conference, here, today.
Palanivel said the haze problem was a transnational and transboundary problem that had affected health, tourism, business and the economy.
He said the meeting was scheduled for last Friday, but was postponed and rescheduled by his Indonesian counterpart.
“Malaysia has experience in dealing with peat fires and we are prepared to offer our expertise to Indonesia to assist them in solving the transnational and transboundary problem,” he said.
Apart from the meeting, Palanivel said the ministry would try to arrange a meeting with representatives of Malaysian-owned plantations in Indonesia which were suspected of contributing to the haze.
“Reports claim that Malaysian companies were involved in the illegal burning activities. Then, the Indonesian government must enforce the law and prosecute them.
“The prosecution part can be done later, but right now the more important thing is to control the forest fires in central Sumatra,” he added.
According to him, Malaysian and Singaporean officials were also seeking to move forward a meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) haze committee to be held in the third week of July (July 17) instead of August.
Malaysia has offered to host the meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
– BERNAMA
