Malaysia's PM raps foreign media for smog coverageThe outspoken Malaysian leader, who said he was "dead against chopping a tree", also criticised foreign green groups for running down the nation's "good environmental record". Mahathir's comments at a business summit came a week after forest fires from the neighbouring Indonesian island of Sumatra poured smoke into parts of Malaysia and Thailand.
Smog shrouded half of Peninsular Malaysia including the capital Kuala Lumpur for nearly a week, with some areas reporting pollution was at unhealthy levels.
Malaysia stopped releasing specific pollution reading to the public early last year but officials have made general comments on air quality to the media.
The smoke has since cleared. But Mahathir said Western reporting of the smog, or haze as Southeast Asian officials call it, was exaggerated.
"There is haze in Malaysia, meaning if you are flying to Malaysia, cancel it," he said. "Don't go to Malaysia, it's a bad place, you are going to die if you have asthma, you won't survive etc."
Mahathir last week urged the region's environment ministers to meet to resolve the smog problem, which has revived memories of the health crisis of 1997 when smog from Indonesian fires cast a pall over much of Southeast Asia.
Some local papers have reported quite extensively on the problem.
Mahathir said yesterday Malaysia's fight against abuses of the environment has been plagued by green groups which he said had other agendas than the environment.
"I think we have achieved quite a bit but people try to make a song and dance about it as if we don't care, but we care. A lot of people who come to Malaysia say how green the country is."
Mahathir said 56 percent of Malaysia is covered by natural forest and another 20 percent by tree plantations.
"While they should run down on people who do not care for the environment, we should also balance it with proper remarks about how much we have achieved in terms of looking after our environment," he said.