Singapore Thrid World Weather Warning System

I have written about this topic before but I guess I need to write about it again because I hate to see our children and young students being put through unnecessary danger by the incompetency of PAP's governance.

I am now spending most of my time in Hong Kong and apparently Hong Kong has a more "HUMANE" weather warning system that is targeted to serve its residents, not merely for its commercial interests only.

Most Singaporeans are ignorant of what modern weather forecast and warning system can do for them. Most don't even know how it works to serve them, prevent losses and even save lives. Some even protest that we cannot expect the government to "predict weather". This is understandable because they are ignorant of what modern weather monitoring system can do and Singapore government has not made available critical weather information free to all but except via commercialized payment for such information.

Who can blame Singaporeans for such ignorance when even our former PAP minister George Yeo didn't know how to react when he was facing his first Typhoon Number 8 warning in Hong Kong? It is not true that Hong Kong have more frequent adverse weather than Singapore apart from the seasonal typhoons. Sometimes, I feel that Singapore has more worse thunder storms than Hong Kong but Hong Kong has a proper colour coded weather warning system even though it has less incident of thunder storms than Singapore.

In Hong Kong, different colour coded warning means different actions required for different sectors. Most of the time, thunder storm warning applies more to certain sectors like swimming pools, construction sites and most importantly, to kindergartens and schools operations. If it is Red storm warning, kindergartens will be closed and kids are not expected to go to school. If it is Black storm warning, most schools will be closed. It would also possibly means that flooding will occur.

Now, can you imagine kids and young teenagers to go to school under the situation shown below? It is actually pretty dangerous for youngsters to be caught in such situation. 

Before some ignorant people start to accuse me for nitpicking PAP government, let me put it straight, with the huge amount of money we have spent in setting up our weather monitoring system catered to our airport which is one of the most busiest airport in the world, we are definitely adequately equipped to provide such weather warning system for public service. If Hong Kong can do it, I don't think we are any inferior to them.

Hong Kong could even predict typhoon path one week in advanced and put up necessary weather warnings in advanced but we do not require that in Singapore. What we need is just a few hours advanced warning to Singaporeans and schools to make the necessary preparations.

We in fact have such advanced warning system in place but it is a paid service. For those in the army, you would know that you can call in for weather advanced forecast. They use Cat system. Even when there is no storm, you could well get a Cat 5 for presence of thunder.

Thus, the most important question is, why is PAP government reluctant to provide such advanced coded weather warning to the public? Don't they care about our young children at all? Since huge public money has been spent on various advanced weather monitoring equipment, including weather satellites and such, we should demand the PAP government to provide such FREE PUBLIC SERVICE that serves to prevent unnecessary injuries and worse, loss of lives and property.

Why would we risk the lives of our students to get to school but in the end, finding their schools or lecture halls being flooded like the ones in NUS? Or like those students ended up like this at their school?

I would urge the PAP government stop being crowded with such a Third World mentally and start to take the welfare of our citizens seriously. After spending millions in weather monitoring system, we deserve better public service from the weather system, not just some ambiguous announcement and warning which means nothing at all. We need to set up a proper categorized and colour coded weather warning system to protect our citizens, particularly our students from being exposed unnecessarily to the dangers of adverse weather.

It may affect some of our economic activities and lower our economic growth a little, but the safety of our citizens' lives is more than growth digits. 

Goh Meng Seng

Taiwan Government encourages installation of Flood Gates

In one of National Solidarity Party's press statement released after Singaporeans experiencing frequent flooding in Singapore, we have recommended the PAP government to consider subsidizing individual households and small businesses who are adversely affected by the floods. However, PAP government has not responded, neither did the main stream media dare to publish anything about it.

It seems that not only the British government has implemented the flood gate installation program, even the Taiwanese government has praised the effectiveness of such implementation of the flood gates.

After the big disastrous flooding caused by typhoon Morakot last year, the Taiwanese government responded by coordinating the installation of flood gates:

Morakot Relief and Reconstruction
Reconstruction Council: Government will coordinate installation of floodgates to boost flood prevention in disaster areas

Publication Date：08/27/2009
Deputy Executive Director Chern Jenn-chuan of the Southern Office of the Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Council said August 27 that in order to improve flood-prevention capabilities of people in disaster areas, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan had directed the Construction and Planning Agency (CPA) of the Ministry of the Interior to provide full subsidies for installation of floodgates in Linbian and Jiadong townships. The CPA shall also oversee local government polling of township residents as soon as possible concerning their willingness to erect floodgates. As long as residents are willing, the CPA shall call on existing contract floodgate vendors to complete installation within seven days.

Chern went on to explain that Linbian and Jiadong are low-lying areas of Pingtung County, so the public in these rural townships should remain on high alert before the water has fully receded in order to cut post-disaster risks. He stressed that Premier Liu has instructed that comprehensive disaster response preparations be completed at both the central and local government levels to reduce future disaster damage or losses.

(Source: Southern Office, Morakot Post-disaster Reconstruction Council, Executive Yuan, August 27, 2009)

I sincerely hope that the PAP government will respond positively for the benefits of Singaporeans who are affected by such flash floods. The following is the news from Taiwan:

馬：高市退回防水閘門 補助 很可惜

* 2010-09-26
* 中國時報
* 【呂素麗、張立勳／綜合報導】

　馬英九總統昨日下午到災情慘重的高雄文藻外語學院巡視，他說，防洪不外乎是「外水不越堤防，內水不入家門」，他大力推崇防水閘門是「小兵立大功」，曾在台北市防洪上發揮極大效果，他強調，「高雄市安裝防水閘門比例不高，還把中央補助的八千萬元退回，很可惜！」

　馬英九總統是在聽取文藻外語學院簡報淹水災情之後，當著高雄市長陳菊、國民黨高雄市長參選人黃昭順及多名官員的面前，突然「數落」高雄市安裝防水閘門比例不高，令人感覺暗藏選戰機鋒。

　在場的陳菊基於禮貌，不便打斷總統致詞而未立即回應，但私下對此表示，防水閘門確實對防水有幫助，可是不具強迫性，市府不能勉強要求市民一定要裝設。她說，過去高雄市民對安裝不踴躍，未來市府願檢討並將鼓勵民眾增設防水閘門，一起來防災。

　馬英九在巡視時表示，這次颱風雨量超大，六小時下了六十公分的水上來，很難不淹水，而文藻大淹水主要是愛河的水進來，校園的水又排不出去所致。

　馬英九相當推崇防水閘門，他舉台北市為例，他說，台北市淹水淹怕了，「久病成良醫」，知道如何防水，其中以防水閘門效果最好，他當市長時，鼓勵市民安裝防水閘門，有八成安裝後很滿意；這次凡那比颱風，行政院已決定動用第二預備金，補助一半安裝防水閘門的費用，希望民眾多安裝。

　他指出，去年莫拉克颱風後，中央特別從預算一千二百億元中撥出十五億元補助縣市政府做防水閘門，屏東縣做了一萬一千多件、高雄縣做了一萬件，但高雄市只做了一千一百十二件，花了七百萬元，還把沒花完的八千萬元退還給中央，他覺得很可惜。

　根據教育部統計，凡那比颱風造成七百五十三所學校受損，災損共九億一千四百多萬元，高雄市占了三億多元，其中又以文藻外語學院及高雄大學最嚴重，災損各為一億六千萬元及一億二千萬元，兩校都在災後停課一周，下周一才恢復上課；立委黃昭順建議教育部，專案處理補助兩校的災損。

　馬英九總統昨日下午也前往高雄縣仁武工業區和永安漁會關心受災情況，高雄縣長楊秋興向馬總統提出治水計畫，在阿公店溪、典寶溪與曹公圳等水系，預計施做十三座滯洪池，包含土地與工程費用，總計約九十億。

　黃昭順則提議，永安地區淹水狀況不同，希望淹水補助標準降至卅公分，但礙於現行法令不可行，馬總統則表示，研議是否修法幫助凡那比颱風受災戶。

NSP RECOMMENDS AFFORDABLE SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS TO FLASH FLOOD

It has flooded again today, NSP empathize with Singaporeans who have been suffering from these floods which seemingly has become a norm nowadays.

Following our recent call for the government to commission a Committee of Inquiry to look into the recently frequent flash floods, the National Solidarity Party (NSP) has researched into possible short-term solutions to alleviate the problem of flooding temporarily for those who are affected. NSP recommends a combination of three affordable and practical measures that the government can implement quickly as a short-term solution to minimise the threats from future flash floods.

The three short-term measures are: flood alarm system, “Floodgate” and submersible pump.

An effective Integrated Flood Alarm System (IFAS) consisting of Short Message Service (SMS), localized siren and broadcast warnings should be put in place. The government should open up a website for those residents and workers in flood-prone zones who would want to be warned of flash floods via SMS to register themselves there. Whenever a flash flood occurs, the nearest neighborhood police post should deploy personnel to sound off a unique siren around the affected area. Lastly, radio and television broadcast warnings should also be given to drivers and motorists.

We have researched for a relatively cheap, portable and viable “Floodgate” which may help residents and businesses to prevent flooding damaging their properties whenever the need arises. The British Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies, responsible for flood response has made recommendation of the product featured by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). This product had effectively prevented flooding in business and residential premises where it was deployed. Huw Irranca-Davies, had promised to inject government funding to supply it to Britain’s flood-prone areas. Costing as little as S$700 each, Floodgates may be easily installed into, and removed from, standard doors. We also hope that the PAP government could provide funding for residents and businesses to acquire such cheaper alternative to help alleviate the pain caused by these floods. More details on the product could be found at http://www.floodgate.ltd.uk

Lastly, submersible pumps may be distributed to residents and businesses in flood-prone zones. They can be used to pump flooding water out of their premises if all things fail. The Civil Defense or another defense unit should also be equipped, and deployed, with heavy-duty submersible pumps that are able to channel flooding water into a nearby unblocked drain, river, or reservoir, or the sea.

NSP empathizes with residents and businesses of their pain in coping with these flooding which seems to become a norm after PUB has turned 90% of Singapore into water catchment area. The damages of the few past flooding have surpassed ten million dollars and we believe it will continue to go up.

While NSP believes that the government still needs to commission a Committee of Inquiry to look into long-term solutions, it believes that the above-recommended short-term measures can and should be implemented immediately with government funding in order to safeguard the interests and safety of the residents and businesses in our flood-prone zones.

Goh Meng Seng
Secretary General
National Solidarity Party

YOG Spending in perspective...

PAP government is spending $387,000,000 for YOG which Singaporeans have shown very little interest. They even need to FORCED students to volunteer in the event while giving them TERRIBLE FOOD!

On the other hand, there are many problems which the PAP is very reluctant to spend money to solve. The recent flooding needs to be solved but at an UNKNOWN cost which the PM said would be TOO HIGH.

ON top of that, PAP government has refused to provide to many less privileged Singaporeans. They have refused 50% of applicants for public assistance.

This $387million was spent to host 5000 athletes and officials for YOG. This means on average, S$77400 was spent for each of the 5000 guests. This could have lasted 5000 citizens who are on public assistance of $360 for almost 18years!

It is time for us to re-examine the priorities of the PAP government. Why would they be willing to spend hundreds of millions on an event which very few Singaporeans are interested in while become a miser unwilling to spend in improving or helping the lives of Singaporeans at large?

Press Statement on recent Floods

I have been in self-imposed retreat for quite a while now. I intended to stay off my blog and the media just for a little longer but it seems that this unbearable reoccurring of floods around the island has forced me to cut short my peaceful retreat. I have issued the following Press Statement on behalf of NSP:


Setup A Committee of Inquiry to look into improving drainage & weather warning system

NSP shares the frustration and disappointment of many Singaporeans whose lives have been severely disrupted by the reoccurring floods in recent days.

The Ministry of Environment and Water Resources under Minister Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim has reportedly spent billions in improvement works on the various canals on this island. However it seems that the situation seems to have little, marginal improvement over the years.

In 2009, when flood hit Bukit Timah, Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim has claimed that it is a once in 50 year happening. We know that this is pure exaggeration as flash floods were happening quite often in that area in the 1970s and 1980s. But since 1990s, millions, if not billions have been spent on improvement works on the Bukit Timah Canal and we would expect floods of such magnitude should be a thing of the past.

On 16 June 2010, Orchard Road was flooded, causing millions of dollars of damage to private properties and businesses. The ministry under Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim has given the excuse of debris blockade.

Today, floods appear again, not only in Orchard Road and Bukit Timah, but in various places around Singapore. What could be the excuse then?

Back in 1999, an article in New Paper has once boasted that Orchard will never flood because of the Stamford Canal. It was said that it will take a COMBINATION of hide tide and 100mm of rainfall within an hour to flood Orchard. But since the Marina Barrage has been built, high tide should not be the main issue here anymore. Could the Marina Barrage be the main issue then?

The first incidence of flooding in Bukit Timah could be excused as Act of God. The second flood in Orchard Road could be excused on the blame of debris. How about the third one? Isn’t it too much of an excuse for such floods to keep reoccurring? Could it be too much of a coincidence that such floods occur after the Marina Barrage has been built?

We hope that the government would form an Independent Committee of Inquiry on this matter. This committee should consist of people who have the expertise to review the whole drainage system in Singapore. Singaporeans should deserve better accountability from the highly paid minister and civil servants instead of resigning to praying to heaven for not flooding Singapore.

On top of that, we would also like to urge the authority and the Committee of Inquiry to look into the possibility of implementing a colour coded weather warning system. This is necessary to reduce the risks of people being exposed to adverse weathers like heavy rains and floods. A Red code rain weather warning would mean that young kids will not have to attend kindergarten while a Black code rain weather warning would mean that all classes in schools should stop. This should reduce the risk of young children being endangered by adverse weather.

Singaporeans want the government to ACT NOW to resolve and improve the drainage as well as weather forecast systems. We hope that the PAP government would respond promptly to this call.

Goh Meng Seng
Secretary General of the 13th CEC

Weather Information in complacent Singapore

Having spent a great part of my time in foreign land, I am used to very detailed weather forecast provided in other places. They have weather alerts such as color codes for typhoons and rain.

For example, if the rain that flooded Bukit Timah is to happen in Hong Kong, it will be Black Rain Alert. It would mean that schools will be closed and students will not be required to travel to school at all. The Alerts will be broadcast by the mass media.

There are times when the Hong Kong Observatory did not make timely and accurate warnings, the community and the mass media would have criticized the authority for the mistake made. This is because adverse weather may result in floods, strong winds and storms that could endanger lives, especially those elderly and young children. You can take a look at the various warnings that the Hong Kong Observatory would issue here.

The Alerts include very hot weather warning because many elderly cannot take heat. It also warns those who are outdoors to take extra precautions during hot weather (normally 33 degrees and above). The system of information provision in Hong Kong is geared towards public safety and interests.

Maybe the authorities in Singapore do not think that weather information or adverse weather alerts are important to public safety. However, if the information about the heavy rain is announced along with the relevant alerts that warrant the closure of schools, those students who were trapped in the flood at Bukit Timah would not need to risk their lives walking in the flood. Furthermore, it would help to alert the elderly not to step out of their houses during this period.

Are we becoming complacent? Or just that our government is so used to the way they manage information? Or that our government simply don't take citizens' interests at heart?

Some may take such issue as "small issue". It is just weather information, no big deal. But the truth is, our government has been keeping a lot of information out of citizens' reach. Every information seems to be "national secrets". The PAP government has been calling out about "Open Society" for so long but yet it seems that the way they handle information is rather opaque. Most of the time, Singaporeans have to rely on foreign sources to tell us how much GIC and Temasek made or lost instead of our very own government.

From the look at the way they manage weather information, we could see the same attitude or simply worse attitude. It simply shows that they do not really have public interests at heart, even though they have been crying out National security and public interests in defense of secrecy of many vital information.

I guess it has to be our fault, the citizens' fault again. If we read the newspaper reports here in Singapore about the floods, they will just exclaim this is an extraordinary flood, worst situation in 50 years, caused by high tide and heavy rain etc etc. But no Singaporeans, no reporters have ever question whether the government could do better in providing adequate information and warnings to avoid citizens risking their lives in the flood. Whether the government should send out early warnings and have schools closure, cancel classes and asking schools to disallow students to travel back home if they were already in school...etc.

No, nothing was mentioned about the responsibility of the government in providing timely warnings. Just reports on how students were seen traveling through floods and some fallen into drains etc. Just excuses about why PUB should not be blamed for the flood as they have done so much drainage work in the past. Every reports you read is about why the government is not to be blamed for the flood but never about how things could be managed better.

This is in sharp contrast to a place with true freedom of speech and expression like Hong Kong. If this happens in Hong Kong, all the commentators in radio talk shows will start criticizing the Hong Kong authorities for not taking precautionary actions and giving the right alert warning. Hong Kong reporters will start to question about the relevant authorities in their efforts of improving the drainage system. The Hong Kong Observatory would have come out and apologized for not giving the right alert warning. The government authorities will start to respond to the queries on the drainage improvement works...

Well, this is just Singapore. The tightly controlled SPH and Mediacorps will not question their bosses up there, would there? However, I am kind of disappointed that no Singaporeans on the net have raised questions on whether the government should have ordered the schools to cancel the classes and adverse warnings cum advice should be issued over the media prior to the floods.

Singapore has spent huge sum of money on many world class weather forecast systems. I believe they could at least provide warnings 3 hours in advanced for adverse weather condition, if not earlier. The problem is that they have not set up the proper alert warning system in place to cope with erratic weather conditions.

I have heard over the radio while driving about the possibility of floods about half an hour before the heavy rain came. Well, but how severe is the conditions? The mere mention of the possibility of floods is just not enough. We need to know whether it is just heavy rain or very very heavy rain. Should our children go to school? or return from school under such heavy rain?

I hope the NEA should take my criticism and suggestion seriously. Weather forecast alone is just not enough. You have to make proper judgment and issue relevant alert warnings to the people for them to take necessary precautions or even enforce closure of kindergartens and schools in Singapore whenever it is needed. Even for hot weather forecast, a certain alert level will enforce warnings to schools to cancel most outdoor activities and such warnings would be useful for many people, like the army, in taking adequate precautions to avoid heat injuries. In Singapore, proper lightning alerts should be issued to warn Singaporeans about staying in open areas. Such lightning warning would be useful for those construction workers whom may work in places without proper lightning protection.

There are so many areas that NEA's Meteorological Services could improve upon the way they provide crucial weather information to the public. I hope they would seriously look into this suggestion of mine for the sake of REAL PUBLIC INTERESTS.

Goh Meng Seng

烟雾问题的根本

烟雾问题的根本

最近闹得热轰轰的烟雾问题使这几乎被遗忘的课题重新浮上桌面。在我的记忆里，这烟雾问题早在八十年代初就一直困扰着我们。八十年代有一部电视连续剧叫“雾锁南洋”非常受欢迎，每当烟雾问题一而再的出现时，国人总会无奈的用“雾锁南洋”来自嘲一番。

一转眼二十多年，我们还是弥漫在“雾锁南洋”的无奈困境里，这到底是怎么一回事呢？难道在苏哈多强人统治时代无法解决的烟雾问题真的能在这时候迎刃而解吗？

如果我们要一劳永逸的解决这烟雾问题，我们就必须严正看待这烟雾问题的根本。首先我们必须对印尼这国家有所了解。印尼是一个巨大的发展中国家。虽然它有很多天然资源，但因为长期被贪腐政权所腐蚀而导致积弱多时。苏哈多政权虽然已经倒台，但他所建立的政治体系并没有完全随着瓦解。虽然历年的政改使得中央政府不得对人民厌倦贪腐的诉求有所回应，但地方政权并没跟进政改，贪腐的情况并没有显著的改善。在这种政治情况之下，对印尼中央政府再施多大的压力也是徒然。印尼中央政府可制定任何严刑峻法惩罚烧芭者，但如果地方政府为了各种利益而没有执行这法律的意愿的话，问题也就会继续存在。在一般情况之下，地方政府为了不影响它本身的税收而不敢得罪那些拥有大片土地的大企业。这也就是为什么烟雾问题这么多年来无法解决的根本原因。

烧芭种植是印尼农业悠久的文化。为何烧芭？烧芭在一个落后贫穷国家能为农业解决两个重要的困难：

1)以最省钱的方式把大块野林迅速清除掉
2)烧芭所残留的灰烬能变成自然的肥料

当然，大型的烧芭活动会带来严重的空气污染，使我们面对烟雾问题。每一片烧芭得来的农地只能让农民耕种几年。这是因为烧芭所得来的自然肥料经过这几年的耕种后便会耗尽。这也就是为什么烟雾问题通常是每隔几年便会严重的原因。

在我们城市人来看，烧芭就是空气污染的问题所在，但对许多印尼贫穷农民来说，烧芭就是他们经济来源的重要部分之一。没有烧芭他们便会失去廉价肥沃的农地。唯一能使这些农民停止烧芭种植活动就是帮助他们找寻廉价替代的种植法，或扶助与资助他们农作的需要。

当然，那些大企业的大型烧芭活动是我无法忍受的。他们为了节省费用而导致膨大的污染社会的代价。如果印尼地方政府对这些财雄势大的污染企业束手无策的话，亚细安诸国就必须介入制裁这些污染企业，坚决的不让这些企业立足于亚细安诸国的经济体系内。

最终的问题是，我们是否有这强烈的政治意愿来执行这样大规模的制裁政策？这样的制裁政策必然会使我们蒙受巨大的经济损失。我们的社会必须决定是否为了杜绝这一些污染企业而付出这经济损失的代价。我们必须衡量广大民众的健康利益是否比这些金钱的损失还重要。我们的政府是有这能力执行这样大规模的制裁政策的。这是因为政府掌握了政联公司控制，能有效立法和执行制裁这些污染企业和它们的任何附属公司的政策。

假若我们亚细安诸国只选择每几年当烟雾弥漫时才坐下来谈谈，例行公事般的大声嚷嚷，写些无法执行的协议书的话，那我们和我们的子孙们也只好永远承受烟雾侵袭的宿命。亚细安诸国对这烟雾问题谈也谈了少有十几年，但几乎一无所得，毫无建树。为什么？根据以往亚细安诸国所达成的“协议”，似乎没有谈及如何对那些污染公司采取集体的制裁行动，也只以非常消极的态度去制订“亚细安联合消防队”的协调条款。我认为这是各国缺乏根治烟雾污染决心的表现。亚细安诸国国民应该对他们各自的政府施压，促使它们拿出道德勇气和政治决心，果断、坚决的制定真正有效的协议，集体制裁那些污染公司，捍卫我们人民拥有清洁空气的权力，保障我们人民的健康！

与此同时，亚细安诸国也应积极的为印尼贫农寻找替代种植法，扶助他们以更有效率的方法提高农作收入，鼓励他们放弃烧芭种植法。只有这样双管齐下才能全面解决我们大家被烟雾危害的根源。

吴明盛

For the benefits of English readers, I have written the following summary of this article:

If we want to solve the haze problem, we must first understand three important factors:

1) Who are those who create the haze?
2) Why did they do that?
3) How could ASEAN countries do more than talk and coming up with ineffective resolutions?

First of all, we must understand the Indonesia political reality. Although Indonesia is a huge country with numerous natural resources, it continues to be a very poor country due to corrupt management by the govt.

Even when the Suharto adminstration was dismantled, the inherent system of corrupt political struggle still largely remain intact at the ground level. The central govt may heed calls to political reform to curb corruptions but those at the local govt may not change for the better. Thus, putting pressure on the Indonesia central govt is not very useful because even if its central govt could legislate stringent laws against pollution, these laws may not be executed by the local govt basically because they may not want to antagonize the large corporates that are involved in the use of fire to clear land, as they are the main source of tax money to these local govts. This is primarily the reason of the Haze problem.

Burning the forest to clear land for agriculture is a traditional practice in Indonesia. It solves two primary important problems for those poor farmers:

1) Provide a cheap way of clearing forested areas for farming
2) After burning the forest, those ashes left behind provides as free fertilizer.

Thus to city dwellers like us, we see the haze as pollution but to the farmers, it may be the necessary process for them to get cheap fertile land. If we want them to stop doing this, we must help them to find alternative ways to get fertile land for farming. A land cleared by burning down the forest will provide the poor farmers a few years of fertile land. After this, they will start burning and clearing other forested area again. Thus, you can see that the haze problem will worsen every few years.

What I could not tolerate is those rich corporates who use the same practice to save cost. By doing so, they created huge cost of pollution to us. If we are determined to stop them from doing such thing, there must be a concerted effort from ASEAN countries to saunction these companies of pollution and their affiliated companies. They must be prevented from accessing to ASEAN economies

Yes, we may suffer economically by cutting ties with these big companies but ultimately, the question is, are we politically determined enough to protect our people from the pollutino created by these companies? If there is no strong moral courage and political will, all talks will end up useless. These talks and agreement only aims to build a ASEAN FIRE FIGHTING FORCE and I think this is a very passive moves.

Citizens of ASEAN countries should put pressures on their govt to go for such drastic moves, make it into law that it is illegal to have dealing with companies of pollution. Singapore could effectively carry out such sanctions as it controls huge GLCs, but will there be strong political will to do so? Else not, we and our future generation will be destined to suffer from such pollution forever.

To tackle the problem of the haze, there must be strong political will from ALL sides. Indonesia is a weak developing country and I do not think its weak central govt could carry out any effective measures against those powerful countries. Only a concerted effort from each and every ASEAN countries to saunction them would create enough clout to punish these companies of pollution.

And only couple with active measures to seek alternative agriculture methodologies for the poor farmers, we could solve the haze problem permanently.

This is the gist of my Chinese posting.

Goh Meng Seng