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KNOW-THIS
Joined: 14 Jul 2003
Posts: 3694
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Malaysia declares emergency: pollution
 Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:23 pm
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Malaysia Declares Emergency, Closes Port Amid Haze (Update1)
quote:
Malaysia shut its biggest port after pollution from forest fires worsened visibility in the Southeast Asian nation, which held crisis talks today with Indonesia.
Port Klang shut down at 2:30 p.m., three and a half hours after the Department of Environment found the air pollution index there had risen to 529. The Ministry of Health considers a reading of 500 or more an emergency. The index fell to 486 as of 5 p.m. local time today from 518 at 3 p.m.
Haze is covering Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur and much of the rest of the country, threatening shipping, air transport and public health. Malaysian and Indonesian officials held talks on how to reduce the spread of smoke and pollution from Borneo and Sumatra islands and Peninsular Malaysia, where farmers use brushfires to clear land.
``It is important that they meet and try and thrash out specific policies with regards to open burning, although from Indonesia's perspective, I'm not sure how much that can be enforced,'' said Geoffrey Ng, who manages the equivalent of $420 million as chief investment officer at Pacific Mutual Fund Bhd. in Petaling Jaya. ``Open burning is very much a way of life in most parts of Indonesia as well as some parts of Malaysia.''
Seasonal monsoon winds are spreading smoke from fires, set to clear forests for use as farmland or sparked by the current dry season. The haze began setting in early last week.
Emergency
Malaysia's Environment Minister Adenan Satem and Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Peter Chin met Indonesian Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban and others today in the Indonesian city of Medan, Sumatra.
Malaysia offered to provide assistance to put out brushfires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Indonesia has deployed about 300 forests guards and installed an early warning system to monitor the fire in Sumatra, said Achmad Fauzi, a spokesman for Indonesia's forest ministry.
The government of Malaysia declared a state of emergency in Klang, home to the nation's biggest port, and Kuala Selangor, a statement from the prime minister's office said. As a result, offices and factories will close, leaving open supermarkets, medical clinics and pharmacies.
The state of emergency ``doesn't involve curfews and there would not be any changes in the pattern and system of the Selangor state government's administration,'' Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in the statement. ``The police and army needs to arrange necessary steps to ensure continued peace and safety.''
Pollution Index
The pollution index was 527 in Kuala Selangor, a coastal town north of Port Klang, 430 in Shah Alam, 354 in the administrative capital of Putrajaya and 326 in Petaling Jaya. The index read 295 in Kuala Lumpur, where visibility was less than 1 kilometer from the 61st floor of the Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest twin towers.
An index reading of 310 to 500 is classified as ``hazardous to health.'' Readings of between 210 and 300 are deemed ``extremely unhealthy.''
``Definitely this will have a negative impact on businesses in the next few days,'' said Nik Azhar Abdullah, who helps manage the equivalent of $684 million as chief investment officer at Avenue Asset Management Services Sdn. in Kuala Lumpur. ``But it's three, four, five days out of over 360 days in a year; it's not going to have a significant impact unless you believe this is going to last for another month.''
Ports
Malaysia's government yesterday released detailed pollution data for the first time since 1997, when the El Nino weather effect combined with extensive forest fires in Indonesia covered much of Southeast Asia with haze.
The haze has not affected Singapore, on the tip of peninsular Malaysia.
Northport has resumed operations, while the Westport remained closed, state news agency Bernama said today. Both earlier stopped operations to ensure the safety of their workers, said Yap Pian Hon, chairman of the Port Klang Authority.
``The haze has seriously affected the ports,'' he said in an earlier interview. Workers ``can't do anything'' because they ``can't see.''
Loading, unloading and berthing activities have stopped at both ports, where operations were halted or slowed by haze for several hours yesterday.
``Not only the port activity, the whole country's economy is affected, even our people's health,'' Yap said. He said it too early to gauge if the haze will affect port handling volumes this year.
Schools
Schools in areas where the index has risen above 400 have been ordered to close today and tomorrow, according to a statement by the Education Ministry late yesterday.
Low visibility of 200 meters (656 feet) meanwhile prompted authorities to close an airport in Subang outside Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The airport is used mainly for cargo and charter flights. No other airports have been so far affected.
Operations at Kuala Lumpur International Airport ``are still running as per normal'' as of this afternoon, said Shuhainie Shamsudin, senior manager of public relations at the airport.
Malaysia this week banned outdoor fires and warned citizens to stay indoors as visibility dropped, endangering ships using the Malacca Strait without navigational equipment and threatening public health.
Visibility
Visibility in Petaling Jaya and Subang, outside Kuala Lumpur, was 300 meters at 3 p.m. local time, the meteorological department said. Visibility at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport dropped to 1 kilometer from 5 kilometers earlier today.
Today, ``certain places are getting worse and certain places have improved,'' particularly at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, said Kamiluddin bin Ibrahim, an officer at the Meteorological Services Department in Petaling Jaya.
The department yesterday extended its low-visibility warning to ships in the southern and central parts of the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest sea lanes, to Aug. 12.
In Sumatra, satellite photos showed 542 hotspots on Aug. 10, or areas where the temperature exceeds 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), the Malaysian department of environment said today. There was one hotspot in Kalimantan, the Indonesian side of Borneo island, and none in Peninsular Malaysia.
``If you look back at what happened the last time when we had such an incident, there was a temporary slowdown in terms of consumer spending,'' Pacific Mutual's Ng said. ``It will affect hotels and, depending on the degree of haze, airlines.''
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Bhang
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 641
Location: Classified |
| Malaysia says many things...
Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:56 pm
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Malaysia Leader Says 'Jews Rule the World'
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/03/10/AP151003.html
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Oct. 16) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday told a summit of Islamic leaders that 'Jews rule the world by proxy' and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims should unite, using nonviolent means for a 'final victory.'
His speech at the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit, which he was hosting, drew criticism from Jewish leaders, who warned it could spark more violence against Jews.
Mahathir - known for his outspoken, anti-Western rhetoric - criticized what he described as Jewish domination of the world and Muslim nations' inability to adequately respond to it.
'The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy,' Mahathir said, opening the meeting of Islamic leaders from 57 nations. 'They get others to fight and die for them.'
Malaysia, a democratic nation that has a large non-Muslim population and does not enforce strict Islamic law, has long been a critic of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and of U.S. policy in the Middle East, including the war in Iraq and Washington's strong backing of the Jewish state.
Mahathir, 77, who is retiring Oct. 31, has used almost every international podium to lambaste the West for two decades, winning a reputation as an outspoken champion of Third World causes.
'For well over half a century, we have fought over Palestine. What have we achieved? Nothing. We are worse off than before,' he said. 'If we had paused to think, then we could have devised a plan, a strategy that can win us final victory.'
The prime minister, who has turned his country into the world's 17th-ranked trading nation during his 22 years in power, said Jews 'invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy' to avoid persecution and gain control of the most powerful countries.
Mahathir added that '1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews,' but he suggested using political and economic tactics instead of violence.
He told the audience of sheiks, emirs, kings and presidents that Muslims had the richest civilization in the world during Europe's Dark Ages, but disputes over dogma - instead of embracing technology and science - had left them weak and divided.
'Because we are discouraged from learning of science and mathematics as giving us no merit for the afterlife, today we have no capacity to produce our own weapons for our defense. We have to buy our weapons from our detractors and enemies,' he said.
The leaders gave Mahathir a standing ovation afterward.
'I think it was a shrewd and very deep assessment of the situation,' said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, without commenting on the remarks about the Jews. 'I think he elaborated a program of action that is wide and very important. I hope the Islamic countries will be able to follow this very important road map.'
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled expressed disappointment in the remarks but said he wasn't surprised.
'It is not new that in such forums there is always an attempt to reach the lowest common denominator, which is Israel bashing,' he said in Jerusalem. 'But obviously we'd like to see more moderate and responsible kind of declarations coming out of such summits.'
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said Mahathir has used anti-Israel statements in the past to prove he's tough on the West. But, he said, Thursday's speech was still worrisome.
'What is profoundly shocking and worrying is the venue of the speech, the audience and coming in the time we're living in,' Cooper said during a visit to Jerusalem. 'Mahathir's speech today is an absolute invitation for more hate crimes and terrorism against Jews. That's serious.'
U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Marie Huhtala declined to comment on Mahathir's speech. Washington was angered over a speech he made in February, as host of the Non-Aligned Movement of 117 countries, in which he described the looming war against Iraq as racist.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while not addressing Mahathir's comments on the Jews, said he supported his analysis, which also included steps for how Muslim nations can develop economically and socially.
'It is great to hear Prime Minister Mahathir speak so eloquently on the problems of the ummah (Muslim world) and ways to remedy them,' Karzai said. 'His speech was an eye-opener to a lot of us and that is what the Islamic world should do.'
The summit is the first since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks reshaped global politics and comes at a time when many Muslims - even U.S. allies - feel the war on terrorism has become a war against them.
'It is well known that the Islamic community is being targeted today more than at any other time before in its creed, culture and social and political orientation,' said Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who hosted the U.S. headquarters in the Iraq war.
The status of Iraq also proved a divisive issue. Malaysia resisted inviting the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council, describing it as a puppet of American occupation. But Arab countries that have recognized the interim body prevailed and council representatives were attending the summit.
U.N. Secretary-general Kofi Annan, in a statement from U.N. headquarters, urged the leaders to reject suicide bombings against Israel and help transform Iraq into a peaceful democracy.
Annan described the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory as harsh, with 'disproportionate military force, destruction of houses and crops, unjust expropriation and closures, illegal settlements, and a fence being built on land that does not belong to the builders.'
But he said suicide bombings damaged even the most legitimate cause and 'must be condemned, and must be stopped.'
Leaders attending the summit included Jordan's King Abullah, Syrian President Bashar Assad, Morocco's King Mohammed VI, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are attending as special observers because of their large Muslim minorities.
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Paradigms of Vigilance. |
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