Indonesia has often pointed out that a few of the companies responsible for the burning are foreign-owned and that their neighbours benefit from cheap palm oil products.
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This season’s haze has blanketed the region in a choking haze for weeks, pushing up pollution levels and disrupting flights, as it does every year.
“I’m more than willing because I’m suffering from the haze too, I’m asthmatic”, he told reporters with a smirk at Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) today (Sept 29).
“Looking at the current situation, it essential for us to extend the period of state of emergency due to haze for another 14 days”, said Arsyadjuliandi Rachman, acting governor of Riau province, one of the worst-hit areas.
“Our focus will remain on monitoring the health of our people”, he said.
Maybe that is the way forward, let me check with my Singaporean counterpart on how they are helping the Indonesians.
Hishammuddin said he is eager to help Indonesia fight fires, which are set by plantation owners to clear land for agriculture purposes, after Singapore made a similar offer. Singapore had previously offered to send C-130 aircraft for cloud seeding and Chinook helicopters with large water buckets to douse the fires.
Indonesian officials have repeatedly said they have enough resources to handle the crisis.
“The RSAF has been training in the South China Sea for well over four decades since the 1960s and this was even before the UNCLOS was an worldwide agreement and ratified by countries including Singapore and Indonesia”, said Dr Ng. He said he was also assured to know that Mr Luhut is open to work with non-government organisations.
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President Joko Widodo last week reportedly visited Central Kalimantan and called for urgent action including building canals to irrigate parched peatlands where fires can be harder to put out.
