GRETA Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist, says we need to panic. And we need to act as if our house is on fire due to the impending climate catastrophe. I can’t agree more.

As such I will be writing to Attorney-General Tommy Thomas on Monday, urging him to issue certificates under Section 22 of the Courts of Judicature Act (CJA) to make the Environmental Quality Act 1974 extraterritorial so that it’s applicable to take action against Indonesia-based Malaysian companies that are contributing to the smoke through slash-and-burn forest clearing. 

According to lawyer Surendra Ananth, this is very much possible. Looking at the phrases “offences under any other written law the commission of which is certified by the Attorney General to affect the security of Malaysia” and “by any person against a citizen of Malaysia” under CJA, one possible written law is the Environmental Quality Act 1974, specifically section 29A which prohibits open burning. 

The A-G can therefore declare the commission of such an offence as a national security offence, giving the Malaysian courts jurisdiction. 

And according to another lawyer, Gurdial Singh Nijar, a law bestowing extraterritorial powers is not without precedent.

He points out that in 2006, a US court made an award against a Canadian company for discharging hazardous untreated effluents into the Canadian part of a river that flowed into the US state of Washington.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement to look at a new piece of legislation to act against the Malaysian companies operating in Indonesian is time-consuming. 

Especially since he is willing to wait it out to see if the companies will take action to put out the fires first. 

Our schools remain closed and people are choking on the smoke. Many are complaining of incessant cough, and blistering throat and eye infections. 

As such, I hope the attorney-general would give my suggestion due consideration. And the Indonesian government must cooperate to name the rogue Malaysian companies or it would be impossible to implement the extraterritorial jurisdiction, just like the setback faced by the 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, enacted in response to the severe land and forest fires between 1997 and 1998.

I would also like to pledge my support for Saturday’s climate protest in Kuala Lumpur as it’s significant for us to register our concerns about the climate crisis as a way of preventing an environmental catastrophe. – September 21, 2019. 

* Charles Santiago is Klang MP. He reads the Malaysian Insight.
 

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.