Government's ignorance of the haze problem

Government's ignorance of the haze problem

The former administration became miffed when neighboring
countries complained about the haze caused by fires in Indonesia,
and the current administration is no better, writes regional
analyst Rizal Sukma, director of studies at the Centre for
Strategic International Studies in Jakarta.

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is really unfortunate. While the
republic's international image has been seriously undermined by
stalled democratization, an endless power struggle and protracted
ethnic and religious conflicts, that image is now being further
damaged by the return of the haze.

Coverage of the issue in the Indonesian media gives the
impression that the problem is Indonesia's alone. Yet as the
smoke from forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra spreads and
envelopes Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand, one cannot
fail to notice that the problem is far from an internal matter.

Repeated occurrences of haze in Indonesia pose a serious
security problem to the region, albeit in the nontraditional
sense. During similar incidents in 1997 and 1998, it was
estimated that the region, especially the affected countries,
suffered economic losses of about US$9.3 billion.

Simon Tay, an expert from Singapore, put the number as high as
$20 billion. He recently wrote in The Strait Times daily that the
haze in 1997 and 1998 affected between 20 million and 70 million
people and caused considerable health problems, particularly
respiratory related diseases.

The relevance and severity of this type of threat to regional
security -- especially in terms of its harm to people's well-
being, or human security -- is clearly evident when one considers
the fact that the problem of haze is not new to the region.

Indeed, it is not new at all to the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN). There have been several efforts by ASEAN
to address this issue. The association acknowledged the need to
cooperate on the issue of transboundary pollution as early as
1990, when it adopted the Kuala Lumpur Accord on Environment and
Development on June 19 of that year.

The 4th ASEAN Summit in January 1992 also urged member
countries to continue to enhance environmental cooperation,
particularly on the issue of transboundary pollution and forest
fires.

In October 1994, during an informal ASEAN Ministerial Meeting
on the Environment, member countries also agreed to improve this
cooperation, develop an early warning and response system and to
improve the capacity of member countries to deal with the
problem. In June 1995, ASEAN agreed to adopt its Cooperation Plan
on Transboundary Pollution, which outlined concrete measures and
activities to be taken by individual countries. In December 1997,
there was even a special ministerial meeting which produced the
regional Haze Action Plan.

Yet forest fires and the havoc they create continue to haunt
the region. All the agreements reached have proven ineffective in
preventing the problem. And here in Indonesia, there is a serious
problem in recognizing the magnitude of the haze issue as a
regional security problem.

The government of former president B.J. Habibie was clearly
annoyed when its neighbors raised the issue. Responding to
complaints about the haze by Singapore, a minister close to
Habibie said: "Singapore has also been enjoying the emission of
oxygen from Indonesian forests."

Under President Abdurrahman Wahid, the problem is no less
serious. State Minister of Forestry Marzuki Usman simply stated
that "we don't have a clear blueprint of how to cope with the
problem. We will start to prepare it".

For our neighbors, such an honest statement might raise
serious questions regarding our commitment to combating the
problem, especially when the return of the haze was predicted in
a meeting of ASEAN environmental ministers in Phnom Penh in May
this year.

It is indeed difficult to disagree with Tay, who wrote in the
above daily: "The laws and administration at the center of the
country, Indonesia, are unable to effectively address the issue."

However, this unfortunate situation cannot be separated from
Indonesia's larger problem of the reduced capacity of the state,
both in economic and political terms.

As Indonesia continues to be preoccupied with serious domestic
problems, it is likely that this sort of nonconventional security
problem will continue to be a source of trouble for regional
security. Political problems are clearly pushing concerns over
environmental issues even lower down the national agenda. The
marginalization of such issues clearly poses a security problem
for our neighbors, especially Malaysia and Singapore.

One cannot but continue to warn the government that serious
attention must be paid to growing environmental problems such as
the fires. There is also the need for concerted action among
ASEAN member states to tell the Indonesian government (again)
that the problems are not Indonesia's alone.

However, criticizing and calling on Indonesia to simply fight
the problem will not result in a positive response. Serious
attention by other ASEAN states should also be given in concrete
forms of assistance. And Indonesia should not see its neighbors'
complaints as a form of interference. It should see them as the
legitimate concerns of friends who not only also suffer from the
problem, but also expect greater "sympathy" in the form of
concrete action.

If Jakarta does not respond adequately to such concerns,
Indonesia's image will only worsen.