No excuses, please

No excuses, please

Surprise might have been pleaded as a mitigating factor last
year when the region was smothered for over three months in a
mixture of smoke and chemicals as the forests of Kalimantan and
Sumatra blazed away. But the ASEAN environment ministers who are
meeting today (Wednesday) in Kuching, Sarawak, need not accept
such an excuse this time round as a fresh outbreak of fires
threatens to send choking haze over large areas of Southeast
Asia. They must put some hard questions to the Indonesian
government and seek full and precise answers. What is at stake
now is not only the health and economic vigor of a region that is
already suffering from a crippling currency crisis, but also
Indonesia's reputation as a nation that can be relied on to
fulfill its international commitments.

Largely because of the recklessness of some brazen culprits,
the number of forest fires in East Kalimantan shot up in a single
day from 618, which was bad enough, to 895, which is infinitely
worse for the surrounding villagers, for the commercial life of
Samarinda, the capital, for flights to and out of the main
airport at Balikpapan, and for the country and region as a whole.
As (Singaporean) Environment and Health Minister Yeo Cheow Tong
put it last year, when 1.7 million hectares of Kalimantan went up
in flames, "pollution does not respect any borders". That is
reason enough for Indonesia's suffering neighbors to involve
themselves even more directly in the problem than they did last
year. Indonesia's financial difficulties make such cooperation
unavoidable; even Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, the country's
environment minister, admits that his government's "capacity to
combat fires will be severely diminished by the current economic
crisis".

All the more reason why Indonesia should welcome a helping
hand. This is not the time to stand on national pride to the
prejudice of others or shrink from hard decisions. The time has
come for a multilateral effort to be mounted by Indonesia's
friends, possibly under ASEAN aegis but also involving developed
nations, to put out the flames and help Jakarta to take effective
measures to ensure that they do not erupt again. It is as much a
shared responsibility as the slump which produced such a positive
response from the International Monetary Fund. This time, too,
Indonesia must abide by the collective wisdom, as much for its
own good as for the good of others.

-- The Straits Times, Singapore