Group mulls suing Malaysian companies allegedly involved in haze crisis

The civil society group, which had threatened to sue the Malaysian government over the haze crisis last week, is also considering to sue the Malaysian companies linked to open burning in Indonesia.

“(We’re) thinking about that but for the time being, just the government,” said Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) secretary-general Al Jafree Yusop when contacted by Astro Awani.

The group which consists of PRM and Memacu Arus Perjuangan (MAP), is suing the government for negligence and breach of trust in tackling the haze problem should it fails to address some answers demanded by them in a notice sent to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk G. Palanivel.

The notice also demanded to know specific action that the government plans to take, to solve the issue.

Commenting further about the action, Jafree said they decided to do this because the haze issue has been going on for 15 years and that “nobody is doing anything about it”.

“A lot of the general public is very frustrated,” said Jafree.

When asked on how much ‘damage’ are they seeking from the government, he said they haven’t considered about the amount yet.

Meanwhile, MAP secretary-general Ahmad Jufliz Faiza claimed that the government’s ‘reluctance’ in dealing with the problem shows they have ‘basic interest’ in this matter.

“I noticed that they only put the weight on the Indonesian government,” he said.

Commenting on what grounds will the group charge the government, he said there are three things that the government has failed to address.

Jufliz said among the things include the responsibility to provide sufficient information to the public, the duty to ‘punish’ the Malaysian companies involved in the forest burning, and the tendency to show responsibility.

In the notice sent on June 25, the government was given a week (seven days) to provide the explanation’, failing which the group said that they would “take the necessary legal action as our next course of action”.

The group said that this legal suit was being done to hold the government accountable as “under the constitution, the government is obligated to protect the citizens".