Singapore ex-prime minister uses Badawi story to tick off Indonesia on haze
Former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (pic) referred extensively to an analogy told by former Malaysian PM tun Abdullah Badawi about neighbours living in a semi-detached house to tick off Indonesians for the choking haze.
"What each does will affect the other. So we have to be considerate in our behaviour like not putting on the TV too loudly or burning our garden refuse openly if the smoke will enter our neighbour's house," said Chok Tong in a Facebook posting yesterday.
"Indonesia does not share a semi-detached house with Malaysia or Singapore. But its detached bungalow is in the same housing estate. So Badawi's analogy of neighbourly behaviour still applies," he continued.
Now called Emeritus Senior Minister, Chok Tong was the latest Singapore leader to comment on the haze. It has affected the island nation so much that their government declared yesterday it would give out one million masks to its poorest households.
Chok Tong was also seen to be hitting back at the senior Indonesian minister in charge of the haze relief efforts for calling Singaporeans childish for the way they were reacting.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono said on Thursday: “Singapore shouldn't be like children, in such a tizzy.”
Chok Tong’s apparent response on Facebook yesterday was: “The Singapore Child is being suffocated. How can he not scream?"
But in the usual Singaporean leaders’ way of avoiding strong statements about their neighbours, he appeared to roll back a bit when he posted: "Forest and peat fires are not easy to put out. They are not like our lalang or bush fires, small and confined.
“They burn and smoulder over thousands of acres in remote places far from the reach of fire fighters. So it is best to prevent man-made, illegal fires from being started in the first place.
"But as of now, the Singapore Child better learn to survive the tortuous smog and haze."
Singapore is probably at this time the worst hit of Indonesia’s Asean neighbours, with its air pollution index having broken a record by breaching the 400 mark, edging out even the southern part of the Malaysian peninsula for now.
Malaysian readings, however, did cross that mark in 1997 and 2005. On Aug 11, 2005 a state of emergency was announced for the world's 12th largest port, Port Klang and the district of Kuala Selangor after air pollution there reached dangerous levels above 500.
In 1997, the highest API reading was 830, recorded in Kuching, Sarawak.– June 22, 2013.
The areas most affected by the haze are indicated by the dark and light shaded areas.
- quote by pinky 
