KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — Malaysia is on standby and prepared to assist Indonesia in managing the forest fires that have caused haze in the region, government spokesman Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil said today.
He said the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) and the Foreign Ministry had briefed the Cabinet on the available assets and conveyed the list to the Indonesian authorities.
“However, until today there has been no updates or confirmation to use Malaysian assets to help extinguish fires,” he said at a press briefing broadcast live after the Cabinet meeting in Putrajaya.
“For us to deploy our assets to assist, we need the permission by the Indonesian authorities,” said Fahmi, who is also the communications minister.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim called for improvements to the existing Asean mechanism for tackling transboundary haze to ensure such incidents could be addressed effectively.
He said the issue required serious attention from the relevant Asean ministers as the haze threatened public health, particularly that of children and babies.
Forest and peatland fires in Indonesia’s Kalimantan and Sumatra regions have caused severe transboundary haze, with air quality reaching hazardous levels in parts of Malaysia.
