From Dec 11 to 24, the 12 Asean Summit will meet in Cebu, Philippines. I honestly do not know what the representatives from Malaysia and Singapore are going to do at the summit.

The Asean countries meet every year and I think this year we can again expect that nothing is going to be done to arrest the forest fires in Indonesia. It has been reported that the cause of these fires are Malaysian plantation companies in Indonesia.

Is it because Malaysia is part of Asean that the Indonesian government is afraid to act against these companies? Or is it because these Malaysian companies already have the Indonesian authorities in their pockets and that is why no action is taken against them?

What prompted me to write this complaint was what I experienced on my flight yesterday. From the clear sky above the clouds, you can see a mantel of opaque, grayish-white layer of clouds below. From the plane's window, you are unable to see anything below and until the announcement is made to fasten your seat belt, it did not dawn upon me that I was somewhere above KLIA.

When the plane thrust though the smog mantel, it was still beautiful for you can fool yourself into believing that you have gone into a bank of fog. What is worse is the fact that the pilot announced that the weather in Kuala Lumpur was fine. Not a word about the haze was mentioned. Why is there a need to misrepresent this fact to the passengers is indeed baffling to me.

Can I humbly make this request to the Indonesian government to please accept the fact that you are unable to control the forest fires in your country? In the spirit of Asean and good neighbourliness, please allow our Malaysian firefighters together with the others from the Asean countries to help you to solve this problem. You have accepted when Asean graciously assisted you when the tsunami hit Aceh. Please accept this gesture again and treat this as an emergency.