OCT 8 — When the dust settles — WHEN — a long sigh follows, “Bright skies till it starts again next year.”
Our annual haze — still soaring after two decades with no sign of receding — reminds Asean brothers how their fates are interlocked intimately and indefinitely.
But till the end of this nasty cycle here in Malaysia, human resources managers bear with high absenteeism, parents listen to the car radio between trips to the clinics — ferrying the elderly and young — to know if schools are closed the next day, marathons remain more hazardous than binge eating, trips to the grocery store incite furious debate among family members on who should go and ministers feel much respite despite any faux pas because people are too busy trying to breathe right.
It is remarkable — for me at least — to remember that 17 years ago finalists of the Asian universities debate championships were discussing how the economic bloc may extinguish the fires by disregarding territorial integrity. Remarkable in that those debaters have gone on with life — teaching political science in the US, serving the Singaporean legal system, regulating development funds for the continent from a Manila office and lawyering in Kuala Lumpur while being married to an ex-MP — but the haze remains. At this rate, the curse might outlive all of us.
They are scorching the earth and the blanket of filth from it envelopes our skies again and again. It is difficult to believe that this is the act of isolated individuals, very difficult.
The companies
Who can act and how can they?
Let’s begin with the man on the street.
He’s been asked by some to not buy palm oil products. I am not sure how many would oblige since Malaysians are generally indifferent to what’s in the ingredients.
[Palm oil production has ramped up in the last two decades in Indonesia, now the world’s top producer, and coincides with the record levels of fires which incidentally clear the land for planting. Activists argue complicity by big plantations based in Malaysia and Singapore via Indonedian subsidiaries conveniently named without reference to the home companies, but the mega-companies claim that the haze is the by-product of smallholders who slash and burn for agricultural purposes, and at times are on their land but not in their area of operations — a tedious distinction that draws even more interest.]
So Joe Public’s part in it is limited, though the price paid by him is extensive.
Government then, I mean the Malaysian government. While Malaysia has always vocally protested without actually demanding action from the Indonesians — we are the vanguards of non-interference in Asean, some may say promulgators of the doctrine — which is akin to giving the Indonesians paper to file.
The development that Singapore is taking five of its home-based companies to court might interest the attorney-general — our new attorney-general I mean. That along with news that Sumatran groups are on the verge of filing against five corporations may elicit some level of reciprocation in Putrajaya. I won’t hold my breath, not with the air quality I have to deal — let alone our government’s keen friendship with large companies.
Sometimes it is more than just friendship. Sime Darby is a government-linked company, and Felda has enough taxpayers’ money in it. Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) Bhd has our Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF) as a substantial stockowner. In fact former EPF CEO Azlan Mohd Zainol is a director at KLK.
It is pertinent to ask, does the government use its control of these companies to adopt strong actions against fires in their leases in Indonesia? More so, is it not perverse that Malaysians are working in the haze so that they can continue to support through their pension scheme the very people involved, if they are, who are burning through their lungs?
Get in there or risk the wrath of pram-owners
While we wait for either one, the haze spell to end or government to act, perhaps the Malaysian companies can engage.
Sime Darby launched a hotspot page at their website but it is hardly an information dissemination campaign. There has to be a narrative and assurance by the company on what is being done and how proactive they are in overcoming it.
It is not just Sime Darby’s predicament, it is for all Malaysian companies operating in Indonesia.
For Malaysians there is fire, followed by drifting smoke and debris which ends with hell for us. It has been a longstanding issue — and Malaysians cannot just expect to live with surface level information.
When I say reasonable persuasion it is a higher onus not just negating a role. The court of public opinion is not built on our companies telling us they can’t be found out — that there is no way that Malaysians living at home with no access to real time information in the hotspots region and with little assistance from the Indonesian authorities to prove credibly wrongdoing by them.
For example, claiming that some fires are within their land but is not in their area of operation but under smallholders. That’s not a large corporation assuming a larger corporate social responsibility, that’s termed getting off on a technicality and establishing a lack of legal liability.
It is happening for decades and our companies operating there are reporting bumper returns.
They might want to consider using some of that revenue to painful exercises to overcome the problem. If it means frosty relationships with smallholders, or them financially incentivising small operators to use other means to clear their land, perhaps it is time for them to consider.
It appears tokenistic and the lack of drive to play a proactive role in a region they are prospering most suggests strong hubris and reliance on having the better lawyers to avoid financial losses rather than a willingness to use their financial gains and local influence to resolve the impasse.
They have to entrench their probity in the consciousness of the people. Facts are immaterial if the effects are a generation old. Mind you, at some point someone actually might mount a social media campaign against the Malaysian companies and their government backers. Then it gets interesting. For the government presently is willing to let anyone out to hang if it means its survival, and in these uncertain days the companies better begin the conversation before the people end it for them.
Bersih, Red Shirts and ex-deputy prime ministers are small fries compared to irate parents. They do not enjoy bringing their children to respiratory ailment wings of hospitals or see Alisa coughing the days away. If they feel — not know — but feel there are those they should be directing their anger at, then there will be consequences
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
