No excuses, please<\/p>\n
Surprise might have been pleaded as a mitigating factor last
\nyear when the region was smothered for over three months in a
\nmixture of smoke and chemicals as the forests of Kalimantan and
\nSumatra blazed away. But the ASEAN environment ministers who are
\nmeeting today (Wednesday) in Kuching, Sarawak, need not accept
\nsuch an excuse this time round as a fresh outbreak of fires
\nthreatens to send choking haze over large areas of Southeast
\nAsia. They must put some hard questions to the Indonesian
\ngovernment and seek full and precise answers. What is at stake
\nnow is not only the health and economic vigor of a region that is
\nalready suffering from a crippling currency crisis, but also
\nIndonesia's reputation as a nation that can be relied on to
\nfulfill its international commitments.<\/p>\n
Largely because of the recklessness of some brazen culprits,
\nthe number of forest fires in East Kalimantan shot up in a single
\nday from 618, which was bad enough, to 895, which is infinitely
\nworse for the surrounding villagers, for the commercial life of
\nSamarinda, the capital, for flights to and out of the main
\nairport at Balikpapan, and for the country and region as a whole.
\nAs (Singaporean) Environment and Health Minister Yeo Cheow Tong
\nput it last year, when 1.7 million hectares of Kalimantan went up
\nin flames, \"pollution does not respect any borders\". That is
\nreason enough for Indonesia's suffering neighbors to involve
\nthemselves even more directly in the problem than they did last
\nyear. Indonesia's financial difficulties make such cooperation
\nunavoidable; even Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, the country's
\nenvironment minister, admits that his government's \"capacity to
\ncombat fires will be severely diminished by the current economic
\ncrisis\".<\/p>\n
All the more reason why Indonesia should welcome a helping
\nhand. This is not the time to stand on national pride to the
\nprejudice of others or shrink from hard decisions. The time has
\ncome for a multilateral effort to be mounted by Indonesia's
\nfriends, possibly under ASEAN aegis but also involving developed
\nnations, to put out the flames and help Jakarta to take effective
\nmeasures to ensure that they do not erupt again. It is as much a
\nshared responsibility as the slump which produced such a positive
\nresponse from the International Monetary Fund. This time, too,
\nIndonesia must abide by the collective wisdom, as much for its
\nown good as for the good of others.<\/p>\n
-- The Straits Times, Singapore<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/no-excuses-please-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }