Mahathir attacks foreign haze reports

Dr Mahathir says reports damage Malaysia's image

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has hit out at foreign media, including the BBC, for painting what he says is a distorted picture of the country's haze problem.

Speaking to a conference of business leaders in Kuala Lumour, Dr Mahathir said certain news agencies and news media had exaggerated the effects of the haze caused by forest fires in neighbouring Sumatra.

The return of the haze has become an almost annual event

"They have a different agenda. They are not so much interested in the environment as they have some political agenda, perhaps," he said.

"When we had haze for one day here it was reported on the BBC three days consecutively that there is haze in Malaysia, meaning to say that if you are flying to Malaysia, cancel it, don't go to Malaysia. It is a bad place, you are going die if you have asthma.''

The return of the haze along Malaysia's west coast earlier this month sparked fears of a return to the 1997 crisis when much of the region was blanketed in thick smog.

Since early last year it has been official policy in Malaysia not to make the air pollution readings public, for fear of driving away foreign tourists.

The policy has been criticised by opposition parties who say the government should give more priority to the health of the young than to Malaysia's image.

Last Wednesday Environment Minister Datuk Law Hieng Ding said that during the 1997 crisis "certain quarters like the electronic media had abused and manipulated the figures to depict the situation as if Malaysia was in a perpetual state of haze."

An online poll published in Malaysia's Star newspaper on Monday found that 83% of users felt the information on air quality was more important than fears of damaging the country's image abroad.

The 1997 crisis sparked a region-wide health emergency

Three years ago the haze crisis caused billions of dollars in losses to regional economies as well as an unknown number of deaths from respiratory illnesses.

The problem has recurred on an annual basis but to date the pollution has not yet come near the levels of 1997.

Although the smog has now cleared, last week Dr Mahathir called for meeting of regional environment ministers to meet to resolve the haze problem for good.