Haze has been an ongoing problem in many countries in the Southeast Asia region, and Malaysia

is one of the worst affected. The main cause of this haze is the slash and burn practice by farmers
and peat fires blown by the wind from Indonesia. especially Sumatra, which mainly affects the
Peninsular Malaysia and Kalimantan, which mainly affects East Malaysia. A state of emergency
was announced once in 2005 at Port Klang as the Air Pollution Index (API) went above the 500
level.[1] Malaysia is working with the Indonesian authorities to help curb peat fires.[2] Malaysia
and Indonesia, together with other members of the ASEAN community, signed the ASEAN
Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 as a result of a 1997 haze. However,
Indonesia is the only country that has not ratified the agreement. A repeat incident in 2005 and
2006 has forced Malaysia and Singapore to pressure Indonesia to ratify it.[3]