Haze testing Asean solidarity, capabilities in tackling complex transboundary problem

Red sky in Murao Jambi on the island of Sumatera

By Ivan Lim
Former AJA president

Singapore: Microscopic specks of dust from forest fires have blanketed the atmosphere over South-east Asia, blotting out the sun, and painting the blue skies a dirty shade of grey.

The worsening acrid haze, emanating from fires in the Indonesian territories of Sumatra and Kalimantan and spreading across to Malaysia and Singapore and up Cebu in the Philippines is testing afresh Asean solidarity and capabilities in tackling the complicated transboundary problem.

Already, exasperation with recurring health-threatening smog have led to a blaming spat.  Malaysia’s Minister for Energy, Science, Technology and Climate Change, Ms Yeo Bee Yin, had an exchange with Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar about the source of the haze.

“Let the data speak for itself,” Ms Yeo said on 11 September, referring to the satellite images of hotspots in Kalimantatn (474) and Sumatra (387) and Sarawak (7) in East Malaysia.

“Minister Siti Nurbaya should not be in denial.” The latter had pointed to forest fires in Sarawak as source of haze.

The sun at 11 am in Muaro Jambi

The recurrence of the haze has raised doubts about the punitive actions taken by Asean governments under the  Asean Transboundary  Haze Pollution Act (2002) to stop farmers and plantation owners from resort to slash- and burn methods to clear land for their crops instead of paying for machinery for earth clearing that costs $700 per hectare.

Several Malaysian and Singapore-linked companies with land concessions for oil palm and timber have been hauled up for the violating the ban on forest fires. But there are limitations on how far legal actions against the plantation owners could go.

Bridge in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo

Jakarta has also acted to douse the flames by sending helicopters on water-bombing missions and plans for cloud-seeding to produce rain.

On its part, Singapore has sent fire-fighting volunteers to help put out the fires in neighbouring Riau province.

The group from the People’s Movement to Stop Haze (PM Haze) is working with its Indonesian non-government organisation, Ekonomi Kreatif Tinggi to restore burnt peatland in villages.

Popular anger with the smoky air has spawned in protest songs. “Haze, haze, haze” parodied the Everly Brothers’ hit song, Dream, Dream, Dream.

Another Stop the Haze PL!!! song set to Day O Banana Boat calypso number.by Harry Belafonte dramatised the hazy disruption to daily life.

“Haze, bro!, Haze has come and we have to stay home!.

“This morning I wanted to go for a run.

“Kids are sad because the schools are closed”.

“Wearing face masks and gas masks are not enough

But the blame game is not going to help chase the haze away, according to PM Haze spokesman, Mr Benjamin Tay.

“(Instead), As South-east Asians, (we) should take that shared responsibility for the fires and haze, as we derive a lot of consumer products from the agricultural industry in Indonesia,” he said.

As the weeklong haze rages on, doctors have warned that breathing in the PM2.5 particulates (less than 2.5 microns in diameter) from the haze could is bad for the lungs. In Singapore, the Pollutants Standards Index (PSI) monitors the 24-hour general air quality and the hourly PM 2.5. pollutant.

On Sunday, the haze created unhealthy air quality (PSI ive 100) but that did not deter thousands of local and overseas fans from going out to watch the Singapore Grand Prix F1 night race.