As jetliners land in Kuala Lumpur's ultramodern and empty international airport at Sepang at night, passengers see a ring as fires burning around the airport. If you drive to the airport in broad daylight, you cannot see more than 10 metres ahead as you reach it. The dry weather turned the peat forests around it, and elsewhere in the country, to tinder, and open fires burn not because someone set it alight but because the tinder caught fire. There is a conspiracy not to talk about it, but when the fires were in Indonesia in previous years, Malaysian politicians and newspapers did not miss a trick to attack them for their negligence; that those who resorted to open burning there were Malaysian companies, including government-owned and -controlled, opening up new estates was unmentioned. But we were told that Indonesian negligence brought this about. The Air Pollution Index must have reached a dangerous level -- since that is a state secret, we are not allowed to know how bad it is -- for, as an asthmatic, I have not suffered as I do now.

Peat fires cannot be controlled; once the peat catches fire, it goes underground, to burn for months and years. Tinder fires can get out of control, and it need not be caused by man, although man sometimes help it along. It is not only around the airport that these fires burn. Go to Seremban or Bentong or Ipoh, and you would see signs of the burning this tinderbox fires cause. The dry season is what caused it, followed by government inaction to contain it. Although this is aggravated by factores and companies burning rubbish out in the open. The dry season also plays havoc with our water resources; Malacca, which forgot to ensure the water dams promised after the last water crisis there a decade ago, is particularly squeezed: its chief minister, Dato' Ali Rustam, wants people to pray for divine intervention. More than that, it becomes a political problem. As for the fire, nothing is done, beyond orders to see that it is minimised.

Since it becomes a political and tourist embarrassment, the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, wants stiff penalties for pyromaniacs and others who set fire to their rubbish in the open. But he cannot decide if this open burnish is a serious offence or not. It is up to the court to decide on it, he says. Obviously, his government does not agree with him. The Environment Quality Act provides for a maximum fine of RM500,000 and five years in jail. But it can be compounded with a fine of RM2,000. So, amidst the crisis which the deputy prime minister talked of, three plantations and three factories in two states no doubt knew the seriousness of what they did when they were told to pay RM2,000 for helping to cause the current problems. The New Straits Times would have us know if was a stiff fine: of the six, four were "slapped" the maximum compound fine. No doubt the companies would be shivering in their pants at this fine! If the matter is as serious as Dato' Seri Abdullah claims, why is this not addressed with the seriousness it should.

This wide gulf between what a leader says and what happens is worrisome. Dato' Seri Abdullah wants the book thrown at offenders, but the civil service defies him. If it is a national disaster, as he implies, did he discuss this with the cabinet, and senior officials, and a police reached before he announced how serious this open burning was? When asked, after chairing the National Disaster Management and Relief Committee, if those involved in open burning should be punished severely, Dato' Seri Abdullah ducked the question. He said it was a perennial problem, and a number of offenders were charged in court last year. How does this tie up with his call for deterrent sentences? But does the government speak with forked tongue? In agriculture, open burning is the norm in padi farming and sugar cane cultivation: both need to burn their stalks to stay in business. But this open burning is seen as a national evil to cover up the government's own inadequacies.

Be that as it may, this haze would not leave us awhile. It would be at least a month before the welcome rains would provide relief. But in three weeks, the Malaysian leg of the F-1 motor race takes place in a circuit now covered in smog and haze. Would this be a first when F-1 motor cars must be fitted with fog lights in a fog and haze-filled circuit? The crowds will come since the tickets would have been sold a long while ago -- except in Malaysia, when the best time to sell is the day before the race! -- but would it help Malaysia's chances for the race to continue here in future years, if haze is a problem this year? We are told the haze is only in two places -- Kuala Selangor and Port Klang; the API readings are higher there, but the situation has improved. When the open fires were further afield -- in Sumatra -- we could not breathe properly; now we are told that when it is nearer home, it is not so bad. But, mark you, the Indonesian fires have not started.

MGG Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my