KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has issued a stern warning to corporate offenders, declaring that Malaysia will not shield or defend any local plantation companies found responsible for open burning in Indonesia that triggers regional haze.
Addressing media after a assembly with Ministry of Plantation and Commodities staff today, the Prime Minister made Malaysia’s stance crystal clear regarding corporate accountability for local firms operating across the border.
“If there are Malaysian companies that are affected (involved), we will give Indonesia space to take action. We will certainly respect the actions there and we will not defend (them),” Anwar declared.
He stressed that the issue of open burning in Indonesia needs to be thoroughly investigated to identify the real cause of the fire before any action or accusations are made. However, he reinforced that Malaysia will neither intervene nor protect any company if investigations prove they are responsible for open burning or other violations of the law in neighboring countries.
The Prime Minister’s firm directive comes as he calls for a total review of regional mechanisms, warning that existing ASEAN frameworks are failing to shield vulnerable populations from toxic air.
“There is room for improvement. I think the ASEAN ministers must seriously look at it, because this is affecting lives, particularly of children, and babies, and if we have seen in Serian [it] is really concerning,” he said.
Anwar’s push for accountability coincides with a severe pollution surge in Sarawak. Air quality in the Serian division plunged back into hazardous territory on Tuesday morning, recording an Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 302 at the district police headquarters. The spike comes after His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, declared a haze emergency across Serian last Friday, which was temporarily lifted on Monday.
The call to crack down on corporate perpetrators aligns with demands from the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), which has warned that the transboundary haze crisis has become a human rights emergency that ASEAN must address with urgency.
Ahead of the Conference of the Parties to the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in Da Nang, Vietnam, this October, APHR is urging member states to close the enforcement gap that has left the region breathing toxic air for nearly three decades.
Specifically targeting corporate wrongdoing, APHR is pressing ASEAN to:
Enforce Regional Legal Frameworks: Develop a regional mechanism to hold corporate entities accountable for forest fires due to peatland drainage, agricultural residue burning, and commodity-driven deforestation.
Mandate Concession Transparency: Require all plantation companies operating in flammable peatlands or forestlands to publicly disclose and publish concession maps across all ASEAN member states.
Regulate Agribusiness Traceability: Implement strict traceability requirements across every step of the agribusiness and food industry supply chain to identify origins and mitigate burning risks at the source.
Standardize Air Monitoring: Agree on a standardized air quality indicator across all member states to track and react to air pollution using a common methodology. – September 8, 2026