Mr Matin Khor is director of
the Consumers' Association of Penang.
He is also active in the Third World Network
based in Penang, Malaysia.
Graduated from Cambridge Univ with a
degree in economics.
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
To: sangkancil@malaysia.net
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 20:32:43
Subject: [sangkancil] Haze crosses the meltdown point (fwd)
From: pillai@mgg.pc.my (M.G.G. Pillai)
Reply-to: pillai@mgg.pc.my (M.G.G. Pillai)
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From: cbk2205@pc.jaring.my ("CBK")
Date: 22 Sep 97
Originally Posted On: jaring.members
Monday, September 22, 1997 FOCUS: Earth Trends
Haze crosses the meltdown point
Malaysians are now haunted by indexes - measuring the financial and
environmental health of the country. As the Air Pollution Index
level shot through the graph at 600-plus last week, anxiety and
alarm turned into anger and near-panic. Action should now be taken,
to convince both the Indonesian authorities and our own local
generators of pollution, to act now and for the long term.
By Martin Khor
MALAYSIANS these days can be forgiven for having an "index
obsession." For indexes an dthreshold levels now seem to measure
the daily fluctuations of our fortunes, economic and
environmental.
They also measure the degree of severity of the crises we seem
to be going through.
Was it only some weeks ago when we watched with bated breath as
the ringgit fell through the then terrible barriers of RM2.60 and
then RM2.70 to the US dollar?
Last week, it once again breached RM3, a level that would have
been unthinkable only two months ago.
Then it was the share market, with the KLSE'S Composite Index:
first going below the 1,000 mark, then breaking downwards through
800, giving a psychological sense of deep financial gloom.
That gloomy feeling failed to lift last week, despite the
meetings held by leaders with fund managers and in spite of the
concrete actions such as the postponement of mega projects and the
cuts in government spending, now being extended to state
governments as well.
But the preoccupation of the last many days has shifted from
the economic to the environmental front as the haze failed to lift
and instead thickened from a light mist to a heavy smog.
Malaysians now have to keep track of a new set of numbers, the
Air Pollutant Index, which three times a day tell us how bad the
haze is.
At one stage, crossing the 100 level to "unhealthy" was
psychologically problematic enough. Then the move into the "very
unhealthy" range of 200-300 was alarming for those staying in the
affected areas.
Then a few unfortunate towns (Nilai, Malacca, even Kuala
Lumpur) crashed above the 300 threshold. And by the end of last week
Kuching shot through the record charts to 405 and then way off
beyond the graph paper to 600-plus.
This 600-plus haze level is the environmental equivalent of the
"meltdown" point that financia ljournalists have so loved to use
when describing the Thai economic situation (and were tempted to
use whenlooking at the plunging indexes at one stage in Malaysia).
It has finally sunk home, that the haze is not going to
automatically and conveniently lift by itself, just like previous
years.
We have entered a hazardous situation and in some areas an
outright emergency.
The wise sayings that nature was despoiled by man will in turn
hit back at us, that the impact of our activities have exceeded the
world's carrying capacity, that human health is intimately linked
with the Earth's health, have become so clearly demonstrated to be
true these few weeks.
The public's mounting frustration is that so little seems to
have been done as the haze problem mounted.
Perhaps the way the haze persisted and then dramatically
worsened caught the authorities by surprise.
Perhaps they thought, complacently as it turned out, that the
haze as in previous years would come and cause some inconvenience,
and then it would fade away soon enough on cue.
As it turned out, the feeling of complacency turned to
helplessness as it was realised that the main factor lay in
Indonesia's burning forests, and that our neighbour seemed to be
lethargic in acting to put the fires out.
President Suharto, for the first time, apologised for the
inconvenience caused to neighbouring Asea ncountries. That was a
little nice to hear, but there was no accompanying assurance of
quick and effective action.
The Indonesian Environment Minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja has
admitted that the fires are mainly caused by companies owning
plantations and forests. They have taken the easy way of clearing
their land by burning the trees.
The fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra have been repeatedly
happening as an almost -annual affair since 1982, so it is
incomprehensible why the Indonesian authorities did not forsee or
did not act in advance to stop this year's event.
In 1983, a fire in Kalimantan destroyed 3.7 million hectares of
forest. In 1991, smoke and ash spread over Malaysia, Singapore and
the Malacca Straits.
The 1997 episode was as predictable as rain. Why didn't the
Indonesian authorities prevent it? Why didn't the other Asean
governments not insist that Indonesia live up to its
responsibility?
Last week it was announced that 176 companies pinpointed as the
culprits, had been warned tostop stash-and-burn practices and were
asked to prove they were not involved in the fires or have their
licences revoked.
This is too little, too late. Could it be that the authorities
were lenient and lethargic because some, of the companies owning
large tracts of forests and lands are politically well-connected?
Comparing the logging companies to the small traditional
farmers, Emy Hafild, director of Indonesian environmental group
Walhi, said: "They burn 1000 hectares at a time, while shifting
cultivators burn only a hectare at a time."
It is surely more than time for Indonesia's neighbours to
insist that enough is enough. "Transboundary pollution" is a
serious threat, when the people and ecology of a country suffer as
innocent victims.
At the same time, we cannot just blame Indonesia, as it is well
known that a significant part of the air pollution is home
generated.
Action should be taken to enforce bans on open burning, to cut
down traffic and industrial pollutants.
This is also an opportunity to lay down tough policies to
prevent further increases in air pollution in the country, and the
factors should be tackled at source.
Awareness of the persistence and dangers of air pollution,
which is now so high, should not fade away as the fires eventually
subside.
Let there be an index for pollution awareness and another for
effective action against pollution, sothat we can also measure
whether our environmental prospects will become clearer or bleaker
in future.
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