Coordinating Minister Warns Police Chiefs and Military Commanders Risk Their Posts Over Forest Fire Failures
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs (Menko Polkam) General TNI (Ret.) Djamari Chaniago has stressed that all regional stakeholders must heighten their preparedness to face the potential threat of forest and land fires (karhutla). Furthermore, he warned that officials ranging from Regional Police Chiefs (Kapolda) and Resort Police Chiefs (Kapolres) to Regional Military Commanders (Panglima Kodam) could be reassigned or risk their positions over the handling of forest and land fires.
This was conveyed following a Special Coordination Meeting on Forest and Land Fire Control for 2026 at the Ministry of Forestry office on Thursday (18/6). The meeting was also attended by Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni, Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency Nusron Wahid, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Akhmad Wiyagus, Deputy Minister of Transportation Suntana, and Deputy Minister of Forestry Rokhmad Marzuki.
According to Djamari, the government will implement strict evaluations of the performance of officials and regional leaders in controlling forest and land fires. He asserted that the positions of the relevant officials are at stake if they fail to carry out fire prevention and suppression duties.
“It still applies (transfer of position), not only for Kapolda and Kapolres, but also for Panglima Kodam and Danrem, they are still risking their positions as I reminded them earlier,” said Djamari Chaniago.
He explained that based on forecasts from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the El Niño phenomenon is expected to begin in the third week of this month. He stated that good coordination among all parties is required to work harder.
“Based on calculations and forecasts from BMKG, El Niño will start from the third week of this month onwards, and this requires a readiness that we must all undertake more rigorously to prevent forest and land fires,” he said.
Nevertheless, Djamari assessed that efforts to control forest and land fires in recent times have shown positive developments. According to him, these achievements must be maintained and improved through solid cooperation.
“There is progress from last year to this year, progress that we must maintain and even achieve better results. The togetherness to do this has been formed, the understanding is also the same for everyone, we just need to implement it. Today we have a collective agreement to handle this,” Djamari stated.