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Malaysia could adopt S’pore’s transboundary law on haze pollution

KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian government is studying Singapore’s new transboundary law to ascertain if it can be adopted in Malaysia, said natural resources and environment minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar yesterday.

Petronas Twin Towers shrouded with haze in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. Ten companies are under investigation to see if they are all responsible. Photo: AP

Petronas Twin Towers shrouded with haze in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. Ten companies are under investigation to see if they are all responsible. Photo: AP

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KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian government is studying Singapore’s new transboundary law to ascertain if it can be adopted in Malaysia, said natural resources and environment minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar yesterday.

“We are still studying this to see whether we can use it, whether it can relate to us, its terms and conditions or whether we can improve on it,” he said in Parliament in response to points raised by Members of Parliament during an emergency debate on the smoggy conditions currently blanketing the region. “We are serious. I told the AG (Attorney General) we need to look into this and the AG told me he will raise this with his Singaporean counterpart.”

Malaysia has no legislation similar to Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014, which allows the city state to impose steep fines on local or foreign companies found contributing to smoke pollution in the republic.

Singapore has recently invoked the law to serve notices to five companies suspected of contributing to the current hazy conditions.

Malaysia, like Singapore, has been severely affected by thick haze in recent weeks due to forest fires in Indonesia from illegal land-clearing activities in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

The haze has forced schools in the region to close, flights to be disrupted and thousands of people to seek treatment for respiratory problems.

As the problem has recurred for years and remains unresolved, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak urged scientists at an international meeting last week to come up with ideas to tackle the annual problem from Indonesia.

Mr Wan Junaidi had earlier said the signing of a new memorandum of understanding between Malaysia and Indonesia to tackle the problem was postponed for a second time, because his Indonesian counterpart was busy with fire-extinguishing operations in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Even though there is no law in Malaysia to punish companies responsible for the haze, several Malay-Muslim groups in the country said companies that have been using forest fires to clear land in Indonesia will face a class action lawsuit in about a month.

Mr Nadzim Johan, who heads the Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia, said the proposed lawsuit will be a good way for those affected by the haze to express their anger against the firms responsible.

“So we want to collect information — who burns forest, who is the owner — and we ask the lawyers that have expertise in legal matter, maybe international laws, to gather and discuss with the purpose of taking legal actions against companies, especially Malaysian companies,” he told reporters at a press conference.

Another activist, Mr Sheikh Abd Kareem Said Khadaied, said the Malay-Muslim groups involved in the planned lawsuit are in a “fact-finding” process to determine if 10 companies on their list are truly responsible for the haze.

“Some of the 10 companies are subsidiaries of government-linked companies and we also know that Malaysia’s GLCs have much involvement with farming in Indonesia. So we hope those who are involved come to us before we come and find them,” the secretary-general of Muslim group Pertubuhan Tarekat Muktabar Malaysia (PERTAMA) said, without naming the 10 companies.

Mr Sheikh Abd Kareem later told reporters that the eventual list of non-governmental organisations involved in the lawsuit could easily go up to 250, which he claimed would represent one million consumers. AGENCIES

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