OCTOBER 4 — This is an open appeal to the Indonesian President, Malaysian Prime Minister and the respective Governments.
For the past many weeks we have not seen the stars; at times not even the sun.
We miss seeing Venus bright in the early hours of the morning with Orion and the Pleiades shining brightly above her.
We are not even able to enjoy the view of the beautiful nearby limestone hills nor the distant mountains of the Main Range.
Even the buildings in our cities and our neighbouring houses have disappeared in the all-enveloping shroud of pollution.
What we have seen and inhaled is the dirt, smoke and smog blown over from Sumatra and Kalimantan.
It fills the lungs of our young and old alike.
This dreary greyness fills our lives, depressing our spirits.
Mordor and evil is at our doorstep.
Mark our words as doctors, the inhalation of such pollutants and chemicals year in and year out will (has already) shorten the lifespan of all Malaysians and Singaporeans and Indonesians.
The rates of cancers will rise further in coming years.
Many younger children suffer and worsen from simple lung infections.
Our governments appear impotent in their response.
For more than 15 years we have been polluted seasonally in increasing duration and intensity.
Yet nothing has been achieved; merely yearly, recycled, empty promises.
The blame for this shame and lack of meaningful response rests with all the governments in the region.
The Indonesian Government is shameless in its inaction.
It has no prevention plans, zero enforcement, and a complete disregard for its neighbours (rife corruption perhaps?).
The Malaysian Government is equally complicit in its behaviour.
APIs that we do not trust (we trust our eyes and lungs), clueless in its response and a refusal to even use the correct terms — haze instead of smoke and smog (rife corruption perhaps?).
It is important to note that while legitimately blaming Indonesia for this seasonal air pollution, we must also take responsibility for and act on our chronic air pollution in Malaysia. As an example let us share from our recent trip to the hills/mountains of Sikkim.
The air in Sikkim is clean and reminds us of our childhood days. It also confirmed what we already knew — that the regular air in Malaysia is heavily polluted.
One clear example is the spectacular night skies in Sikkim. When there are no clouds, the sky was so full of stars that constellations were hard to identify! The sky is like one large star cluster and the Milky Way stretches like a luminous ribbon across the sky (see image that we took).
We have not seen skies like these in Malaysia since our childhood. Of course light pollution is an issue but we must accept that our basic air quality is poor, worsening and chronically poisoning us.
What needs to be done for this crisis can be outlined by any school-going child but our governments dither in their non-existent response, hoping for rain and always hiding under the term “complex” problem:
1. The governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore should immediately declare this an emergency, join forces and send large numbers of the army/troops over to Sumatra and Kalimantan to immediately stop all open burning. Finally our large armies can win a war and the pride of the people. Blame can be settled later, save the people first.
2. All non-emergency transportation in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore needs to be halted, along with heavy emission factories for a few days. A painful but vital step to help rapidly improve air quality. See the strong example of the Chinese government that cleared Beijing’s skies by shutting down hundreds of factories, and with half of Beijing’s five million cars banned from the streets.
3. We need serious measures to prevent the yearly occurrence. This must include punitive legal action against open burning and polluters. If our neighbouring country refuses to act (after polluting us for years), the time has come to have a hard look at our relationship.
Any government that cannot solve a problem that has been plaguing and harming its people for more than 15 years does not deserve to be in power.
We vitally need a meaningful response from our governments.
* This is the personal opinion of the writers and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
