PM: M’sia offered to help fight haze in Indonesia
Published on: Friday, September 20, 2019
By: Bernama
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia never asked Indonesia why it did not accept its offer of assistance to combat the haze-causing forest fires in the republic, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday.
He said Malaysia had offered assistance to tackle the forest fires in Indonesia as it had water-bombing equipment.
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When asked at a news conference why Indonesian President Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, was not willing to accept Malaysia’s offer, Dr Mahathir said: “I don’t know why.”
“Asking (Jokowi) why you do not want to receive our help? But I have never done that yet.
“Why don’t you ask (Jokowi)?” he said after chairing a meeting of the Special Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption, here.
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Asked how Malaysia will check the haze problem, the Prime Minister said:
“We pray for rain. We try to do cloud-seeding and ask people to wear masks.”
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Asked about the cost involved in conducting cloud-seeding, Dr Mahathir said he had not received information on the cost.
“But we have a suggestion now to use drones to form artificial rain. We can use several (drones), not one, in a particular area with regard to Putrajaya which is badly affected by haze,” he said.
Haze from the forest fires in Indonesia’s Sumatera and Kalimantan, carried to Malaysia by the Southwest Monsoon winds, has reduced the air quality in many areas of the country.
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir said Malaysia will speak the truth at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York next week.
“We will criticise where we need to criticise and we will also praise certain things done by the UN,” he said when asked about the issues that he would raise at the assembly.
Dr Mahathir said he would not be meeting United States President Donald Trump while in New York.
“I will not meet Trump but I will make a speech there of course, I will meet many leaders also,” he said.
On the political funding bill, Dr Mahathir said the legislation would be tabled in the Parliament soon as it was important to ensure money given to political parties would not be pocketed by certain leaders.
“At the moment, people can give cash to some leaders who claimed to be representing their parties, but maybe (the money) goes into their pockets.
“We want to know how much money goes into the political parties, (and) whether it is really a donation,” he said.
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On Tuesday, National Centre for Governance, Integrity, and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) Director-General Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed was reported as saying that the legislation on political funding was expected to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat next month.
Abu Kassim said the Bill was among the new laws and regulations being mooted to complement other initiatives to make Malaysia a corrupt-free nation.