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