Prabowo demands identities of corporations involved in forest fires be reported
President Prabowo Subianto has asked the Indonesian National Police (Polri) to enforce the law against corporations proven to be involved in forest and land fires (karhutla), including those suspected of opening plantation land by burning.
During a limited meeting on the progress of natural disaster management, monitored online from Jakarta on Monday, Prabowo requested that the identities of corporations suspected of involvement be traced and reported to him.
“I am also interested in cases where, immediately after a fire, the land becomes a plantation in a very short time. So this is clearly deliberate, and the question is whether it is the people or a corporation. But please keep investigating, and I want the names of those corporations to reach me quickly,” said Prabowo.
National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo reported that the police have named 138 suspects in the handling of forest and land fires, out of 200 police reports received. Of these, 119 individuals are suspected of deliberate burning, whilst the other 19 involve negligence.
Prabowo asked Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni, Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency Nusron Wahid, and the Forest Area Enforcement Task Force (Satgas PKH) to look deeper into allegations of corporate involvement in the fires.
“If necessary, let us immediately revoke all their permits — revoke their land-use rights (HGU) and so on. This has gone too far, and I also want to know who truly owns those corporations,” he said.
The President also stressed the importance of investigating the ownership of corporations suspected of involvement, so that law enforcement does not stop at the field-level perpetrators.
Regarding the handling of forest and land fires specifically, Prabowo asked the government to strengthen planning by prioritising mitigation and prevention, rather than acting only after fires occur.
“I want us, in our planning, to apply the principle of ‘better more than less’,” said Prabowo.
He asked the government to increase the equipment available for handling forest and land fires, including helicopters, water pumps, fire engines, and other necessary tools, so that preparedness can be improved before fires break out.