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Press
Statement
by Hon. Dr. Yee Moh Chai, M.P. for Tanjung Aru (P.156)
in Kota Kinabalu
on 8th April 1998
It
is completely unacceptable that this Government could not even tell
us how serious the current haze problem is because of the fact that
the API monitoring machine is not working again.
Indeed,
this Government has done nothing near enough that could give any
confidence to the people of Sabah that the haze problem is being
handled properly at all.
Since
the API figure is not going to be available for the schools, there
is the real danger that our school children could be exposed to
dangerously high level of haze. The school-masters will not be able
to close the schools even if he feels that the haze is too dangerously
high for the simple reason that he has no API figures to base his
decision upon. This is the act of a grossly irresponsible Government.
This
Government has been fooling the local people and the foreigners
by consistently under-reporting the haze problem which we are facing.
It is high time that Chairman of the Emergency Council of Sabah,
who is overseeing this serious matter, should stop pulling the haze
over the people’s eyes. He should stop treating this whole serious
problem as if it is an April Fool. I do not understand why the Chairman
of the Emergency Council of Sabah should ignore our much earlier
appeal that he should mobilize all the personnel available including
the NGOs and the armed services in order to keep the bush fire and
haze under control.
Very
tragically, what we see today is that instead of having any confidence
in this Government in handling the haze problem we are facing, this
Government could not even tell us what is the API figure! Indeed,
if the Chairman of the Emergency Council of Sabah should have any
sense of responsibly at all then he should have resigned long ago
and let some others who are more capable of handling the haze problem
facing us today to do the job.
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