(Oct 21): Putrajaya is studying Singapore's new transboundary law on smoke pollution to ascertain if it can be adopted in Malaysia.

Underlining the country's seriousness in tackling this annual problem, natural resources and environment minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said he had spoken to the Attorney-General (A-G) about this.

Malaysia has no legislation similar to Singapore's Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014 which allowed the city state to impose steep fines on local or foreign companies found to contribute to smoke pollution in the republic.

"We are still studying this to see whether we can use it, whether it can relate to us, its terms and conditions or whether we can improve on it.

"We are serious. I told the A-G we need to look into this and the A-G told me he will raise this with his Singaporean counterpart," he said, replying to points raised by MPs during the emergency debate on the smoggy conditions currently blanketing the region, including Malaysia.

The republic has invoked the law to serve notices to five companies suspected of contributing to the current choking conditions.

Malaysia and Singapore have been severely affected by smoke in recent weeks due to forest fires in Indonesia as a result of land-clearing activities in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

The resulting smoky condition has forced schools to close, flights to be disrupted and thousands of people to seek treatment for respiratory problems.

A total of 2,528 schools, involving some 1.7 million students in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, remained closed for the third straight day today.

The smoke problem has persisted for years and remains unresolved, prompting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to urge scientists at an international meeting last week to come up with ideas to tackle the annual problem from Indonesia.

Wan Junaidi had previously said the signing of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Malaysia and Indonesia to tackle the problem was postponed for the second time, because his Indonesian counterpart was busy with the handling of operations to put out fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo said it would take three years to put an end to the forest fires in his country. – The Malaysian Insider