Putrajaya lying about haze? Stop living in denial, Malaysian minister tells Indonesian counterpart

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian minister Yeo Bee Yin told Indonesian Environment Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar on Wednesday (Sept 11) not to be in denial after the latter alleged of a cover up by Putrajaya regarding the current haze situation.

In a Facebook post, the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change minister shared the latest data on the number of hotspots by Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre.

"Let the data speak for itself. The latest data on the total number of hotspots recorded by Asean Specialised Meteorological Center (ASMC) : Kalimantan (474), Sumatera (387) vs Malaysia (7)," said Ms Yeo, who shared the link to the corresponding website.

She also dismissed Ms Siti Nurbaya's claims that the haze originated from Sarawak by sharing an image of the wind direction, stating that the latter’s claim was illogical.

"As for her claim that the haze is from Sarawak, just look at the wind direction. How is it logically possible?

"Minister Siti Nurbaya should not be in denial," Ms Yeo said.

Earlier this week, Ms Yeo said the fires in Indonesia are the root cause of the haze that Malaysia is currently experiencing, and that such fires need to be urgently extinguished.

She added that the Malaysian government will use all diplomatic channels to raise the urgency of taking immediate action to the Indonesian government.

Ms Yeo also said Malaysia is ready to offer assistance to help Indonesia put out fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Sumatra is separated from peninsular Malaysia by the Straits of Melaka, while Kalimantan shares land borders with Sarawak and Sabah. MALAY MAIL