KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Malaysia has urged Indonesia to review its laws or traditional practise that sanctions small landowners to do open burning.
Natural Resource and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the haze issue that had crossed boundaries could be overcome if Indonesian tradition that permitted small landowners to clear their land through the open burning method could be stopped.
Wan Junaidi said Malaysia would wait and see the instrument to be proposed by Indonesia at the technical meeting to be held on May 30 before proposing its review.
The meeting will be attended by five countries — Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Thailand.
He was also confident that the haze issue that had crossed the border could be resolved between government to government (G2G), as proposed by Indonesia to mediate the problem between the two countries.
He explained that Malaysia would only face the haze problem starting next month if the provinces of Sumatera and Kalimantan in Indonesia faced hot and dry weather, with changes in the west monsoon winds to the east, including open burning in Indonesia.
Yesterday, the media quoted Wan Junaidi as saying that Malaysia was expected to face haze problems starting next month until October as a result of hot and dry weather in the province of Sumatera and Kalimantan. — Bernama
