Haze

Haze

Our neighbors Singapore and Malaysia are also distressed
because of the smoke coming from Kalimantan and Sumatra. The
Singaporean government has even set up a task force in
anticipation of a worsening of the situation.

Malaysia, blaming the forest fires in Indonesia to bad
management, has also complained. They are now preparing to offer
assistance to help Indonesia put out the fires and exercise
better management over its forests.

This year's forest fires are said to be the biggest in the
past ten years. In South Sumatra alone, according to a forestry
expert of Gajah Mada University as reported by Antara, 263 forest
fires have so far occurred this year, devastating 5.7 million
hectares of forest.

Putting out the forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra is
indeed an urgent business. However, preventing them from
occurring again in the future is of no less importance.

In the final analysis, forest fires concern not merely natural
conditions or dry season. They possess other dimensions as well
that are even more complex and range from health issues to social
problems and even international relations. Without systematic and
concerted efforts to overcome the problem at present, those
dimensions will in the future become even more complex and
intricate.

-- Republika, Jakarta