OCTOBER 11 — Large parts of Malaysia have now spent two months breathing air that the Government’s own index rates as unhealthy.
On 4 September, the Air Pollutant Index (API) in Serian reached 519 and an emergency was declared across the division.
On 8 October, 38 areas recorded unhealthy readings, from Johor to the Klang Valley.
The toll on health is already measurable.
Ministry of Health surveillance recorded asthma cases up 259 per cent, and upper respiratory tract infections up 124 per cent, in a single week in August.
This is not a weather story.
It is a public health crisis, and it falls hardest on children, the elderly and those with heart and lung conditions.
Yet on the health emergency at home, the Madani Government has been conspicuously quiet.
The Cabinet found time to review the National Day celebrations and to move Malaysia Day events indoors because of the haze.
On 30 September, however, days before three international sporting events, the Government's spokesman confirmed that the Cabinet had not discussed the haze or what would be done should it worsen.
He said he hoped it would improve, observing that it sometimes rains.
When Kuala Lumpur hosted the Asean Health Ministers' Meeting in September, the haze was not on its formal agenda.
This week, the Minister responsible told Parliament that the haze must be tackled collectively, without pointing fingers or blaming anyone.
Malaysians are not asking anyone to point fingers.
They are asking to be protected.
The Prime Minister's personal call to President Prabowo, announced on 8 October, and more frequent cloud seeding are welcome.
But diplomacy and cloud seeding are not a public health response.
It has instead fallen to the Rulers to act.
On 7 October, His Royal Highness the Regent of Johor, Tunku Mahkota Ismail, decreed the closure of every school in Johor, covering more than 617,000 pupils in 1,198 schools.
The next day, His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong called for schools to close wherever the API stays above 150 to 180 for a prolonged period, and urged the Ministry of Education to give the matter serious attention.
Only then did the Ministry change course.
That evening, it lowered its closure threshold from an API of 200 to 180, and to 150 where readings persist for three consecutive days, stating that it did so in accordance with His Majesty's decree.
I respectfully commend His Majesty and His Royal Highness for placing the health of children first.
But it should never have come to this.
Education is a federal matter under the Federal Constitution, yet for two months the Ministry's rule kept schools open until the API crossed 200, a level the Government's own index classes as very unhealthy.
As late as 7 October, it was still directing state and district offices merely to continue monitoring.
Protecting children from toxic air is the most basic duty of the executive.
It should not have had to await a royal decree.
Our neighbours show what it looks like when a government treats haze as a question of public health and of law.
Singapore prepared before the smoke arrived.
Its Haze Task Force, chaired by the National Environment Agency, issues daily advisories with a forecast for the next 24 hours.
Every primary and secondary school classroom has an air purifier, and national mask stockpiles are kept ready.
Since 2014, Singapore's Transboundary Haze Pollution Act has exposed companies, local or foreign, to criminal and civil liability for causing or contributing to haze in Singapore.
Fines run to S$100,000 for each day of haze, up to S$2 million.
Indonesia, where most of the fires burn, has this season sealed off about 50 companies across eight provinces.
It has revoked the licences of five concession holders covering more than 92,000 hectares, and is pursuing some 30 companies for nearly Rp15 trillion in state losses and restoration costs.
Indonesians are also holding their own Government to account.
This week, a class action accusing President Prabowo and nine other officials of gross negligence opened in Pontianak.
Thailand, facing its own PM2.5 crisis in January 2025, closed more than 350 Bangkok schools, made the capital's public transport free for a week and urged employers to let staff work from home.
Its Parliament has since voted 611 to 3 to revive a Clean Air Bill that would recognise the right to clean air and make polluters pay.
As a lawyer concerned with the criminal justice system, I am troubled by the enforcement record at home.
Open burning is an offence under section 29A of the Environmental Quality Act 1974.
Since the 2024 amendments, it carries a fine of between RM25,000 and RM1 million, imprisonment of up to five years, or both.
Yet the Minister told Parliament this week that 1,447 open burning complaints received between 3 August and 29 September led to 41 directive notices, 27 compounds and only three court cases.
A law that is seldom prosecuted deters no one, and a compound is not a conviction.
The larger gap is transboundary.
A transboundary haze law has been under consideration since 2018.
Eight years on, the Ministry said last month that it was still examining Singapore's model, cautioning that drafting such a law is not simple.
The Prime Minister has acknowledged that Malaysian companies operate in Indonesia, and has said Malaysia will not defend any found to have contributed to the haze.
That assurance means little unless Malaysian law can reach them.
I therefore urge the Cabinet to act on six fronts without delay:
Treat the haze as the public health emergency it is. Make one Minister answerable for the national response and brief the public regularly, rather than leaving the key decisions to district offices and state authorities.
Keep the new thresholds and close schools on forecasts. Make the Ministry's lower thresholds permanent. Then use MyCMAQ, the air quality forecasting model Malaysia launched in March 2026, to close schools before children are exposed, and fit air purifiers in classrooms in the worst affected districts, as Singapore has done.
Protect the most vulnerable. Distribute N95 masks free to children, the elderly, pregnant women and those with chronic heart or lung disease. Issue a federal directive on outdoor work and flexible hours, reminding employers of their duties under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994.
Enforce the law at home without fear or favour. Prosecute open burning rather than compound it, and publish the outcome of every case.
Table a Transboundary Haze Pollution Bill without further delay. It should impose criminal and civil liability on companies that cause or contribute to haze affecting Malaysia, wherever they operate, and reach the parent companies and directors who control them.
Lead in Asean. Use the Conference of the Parties to the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, scheduled for Vietnam in December, and Malaysia's hosting of the regional ministerial steering committee in 2027, to press for enforceable commitments, a fully operational Asean haze coordinating centre and traceable supply chains.
Our Court of Appeal recognised in Tan Tek Seng v Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Pendidikan & Anor [1996] 1 MLJ 261 that the right to life under Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution includes the quality of life.
There is little quality in air that sends children to clinics and keeps them out of school.
The Minister himself has warned that the worst is yet to come, with dry conditions expected to last until the middle of 2027.
Even if the change of monsoon brings relief in the coming weeks, the haze will return.
Malaysians deserve a Government that prepares for it, speaks plainly about it and holds those responsible to account.
Hoping for rain is not a policy.
* Vivekananda Sukumaran is an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
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