Malaysians, Thais extremely unhappy over haze – Poll

MALAYSIA/THAILAND – KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians and Thais are extremely unhappy with the frequent haze and their governments’ poor management of the issue, a poll by USCI Poll Research Centre revealed today.

According to its chief executive officer, Asst. Prof. Dr Noppadon Kannika, the majority of the respondents or 64.5 per cent said they “felt unhappy” and “extremely unhappy” for having to face the problem each year.

When asked to comment on both the governments’ performance to improve the situation of haze in their countries, 70.7 per cent of the respondents said they were “dissatisfied”.

Only 29.3 per cent said they were “satisfied”, he said.

Both the poll’s qualitative and quantitative approaches were conducted between Sept 20 to 30, among 958 people in Malaysia and Southern Thailand.

About 50.2 per cent of the total respondents were males, and 49.8% were females.

Dr Noppadon said for the peace and civil happiness in Asean countries, the majority or 78.8 per cent of the respondents “agreed” and “strongly agreed” that all Asean nations should have more responsibility to mutually help solve the haze and work together to prevent future problem.

“Only 18.6% neither agreed nor disagreed, and 2.6% disagreed and strongly disagreed.” he said.

At the same time, the poll’s results showed that the majority or 77.3 per cent believed that law enforcement at the origin country of the haze had “failed”.

He said: “Civil societies in studied countries (Malaysia and Thailand) need Asean power to take more responsibilities to prevent and solve the haze’s negative effects on human and animal health, businesses, and other well-being domains.”

He added that the poll also pointed out the need to improve law enforcement, anti-corruption, warning systems, exchange of information, exchange of technology, mutual assistance, and public awareness campaign to counter the haze problem.