KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 – A member of the Indonesian Parliament apologize to Malaysia and Singapore due to an issue of the haze that surge both countries. Member of the National Democratic Party Hamdhani Mukhdar Said from the constituency of Central Kalimantan said the Indonesian government would like to take precautionary action to tackle the fire which occurred in several areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
“We apologize to the government of Malaysia and Singapore in this matter (haze). It was not intentional … Indonesian government has committed up to deal with this, even our president (Joko Widodo) also came down to location. Indonesia is experiencing a drought that caused forest fires,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the 36th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) here on Tuesday.
“Some communities are opening farms, but if they started the fires, we will punish them. But there are also a result of circumstances that are too hot, so the dry forests burn itself, Malaysian-owned oil palm plantations were also razed. However, the rainny weather in Kuala Lumpur was expected to help reduce the haze,” he said.
According to the pDepartment of Environment website, seven areas recorded unhealthier Air Pollution Index (API) exceeding 100 as at 8am yesterday morning. Three areas in Negeri Sembilan with unhealthy API readings were Nilai (135), Port Dickson (117) and Seremban (114). Besides that, there were also having unhealthy API readings are Melaka City (111), Bukit Rambai (126), Batu Muda(Kuala Lumpur) (108) and Banting (106).
