The haze that has enveloped the country in these past months is a serious threat to public health and is causing losses to the economy. It has been shown that there are more deaths and illnesses during periods of haze. Businesses are suffering and tourism is severely affected, with several countries now issuing warnings to their citizens not to visit Malaysia. Our country it appears for now is a health hazard.

API readings don't mean much when throats are on fire. It is unforgivable that children have to breathe this carcinogenic muck at a tender age. Muslims have to suffer more during this Ramadan period since they have to abstain from drinking water under very severe conditions.

Singapore has not been spared. For nearly a decade we have put up with an inconsiderate neighbour who shows no signs of taking action, except to issue meaningless statements of regret and apology. The fact that they haven't ratified the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution 2003 or implemented the Hanoi Action Plan 1998 just shows their priorities.

The claim that Indonesia does not have the resources to fight the fires is a joke since if they needed help then they should have asked for it a long time ago, ratified the Asean agreement in 2003 and prosecuted the culprits whom they partly blame.

Surely 10 years is long enough. What is more shocking is that our leaders play the same old broken record of excuses, which frankly everybody is sick of hearing. The impotence of Asean to solve such a serious problem after so many years just lends support to the criticism that Asean is just a "talk fest".

Indonesia on their part continues to blame, in part, the problem on Malaysian companies carrying out land clearing by burning, which is prohibited under their law. If this is true, please give us the list of Malaysian companies and their directors who are involved together with their photographs taken from the Indonesian jails where they belong.

What is sad is that nobody is really interested in the truth as to who is really behind this, God or Man or both.

It is evident that prior to 1997 this problem did not occur, so it is most unlikely a "natural disaster". It is incredible that with the technology available, the ownership of the land being cleared cannot be determined nor who benefits from the burning and clearing of the land. Surely, this is a simple matter. Please put the directors of these companies in jail for 10 years and levy massive fines on the companies involved and this will surely stop this problem.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment is impotent to protect the public from this problem.

The solution is really very straightforward. The problem, if it arises from Indonesian soil as claimed (and not Malaysian) can only be solved through pressure on the Indonesia government.

These should be the measures taken:

>> Extend the extra-territorial jurisdiction of Malaysian courts to allow class action suits by members of the public against the Indonesian government for compensation for losses suffered. Awards of the Courts should be allowed to be executed against any Indonesian government assets within or outside Malaysia (Several countries such as the US have such laws).

>> The Malaysian government should take the Indonesian government to the International Court of Justice.

>> Trade sanctions should be imposed against Indonesia by Asean and other countries until they substantially reduce the problem.

>> All Indonesian goods and services should be subject to environmental taxes to compensate the losses caused by the pollution.

Nobody would like to do this to a neighbour, whom we have helped in the past whenever they had natural disasters but Indonesia is not behaving like a good neighbour anymore.

Yes, we hear they now intend to ratify the Asean agreement and a special fund known as Asean Haze Fund may be set up to help them. What have they been doing since last year? As all of us know these agreements and funds are meaningless without any enforcement provisions.

Please stop talking about it, signing pieces of paper or regurgitating the same verbiage at conferences. Instead, just do it!

The writer is an expert on planning law and local government. Comments: feedback@thesundaily.com