Prabowo Receives Panglima Jilah, Discusses Forest Fire Handling in West Kalimantan
President Prabowo Subianto received a visit from the supreme leader of the Red Force of the Tariu Borneo Bangkule Rajakng (TBBR) organisation, Panglima Jilah, at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta. During the meeting, Panglima Jilah said that Prabowo had pledged support to accelerate the handling of forest and land fires (karhutla) in Kalimantan.
“We discussed karhutla. He is helping us through personnel, and this has already begun, about a week ago,” Panglima Jilah said in a statement from the Presidential Secretariat’s Press, Media and Information Bureau on Friday (28/8/2026).
According to Panglima Jilah, government support for West Kalimantan is not limited to tackling forest and land fires. He said Prabowo has also paid attention to various needs of communities in the region.
“The President has helped us a great deal, especially in West Kalimantan — customary houses, schools, scholarships, roads, infrastructure, hospitals, scholarships, and the TNI-Polri,” he said.
On that occasion, Panglima Jilah also highlighted an issue that often arises when forest and land fires occur: accusations that shifting cultivators are the cause of the fires. In his view, Dayak farming activities have characteristics and locations that differ from plantation areas, particularly with regard to peatland.
“Shifting cultivation and plantations sometimes occur at the same time. In the end, the farmers get the blame. But in fact, shifting cultivators do not farm on peatland. They farm on mineral soil,” he said.
Panglima Jilah said indigenous communities play an important role in monitoring land-burning activities. He stressed that indigenous communities are not merely on the receiving end of fire impacts, but also take part in monitoring their respective areas.
“So when we burn, wherever our farmland is burned, that is where we carry out the monitoring,” he said.
Panglima Jilah asserted that the tradition of shifting cultivation has been practised by the Dayak people for a long time, long before plantations developed in Kalimantan. The Dayak people, he said, have a close relationship with nature, making environmental stewardship an important part of indigenous life.
In efforts to prevent forest and land fires, indigenous communities also conduct outreach through customary leaders. The education is aimed at ensuring that people do not burn forests carelessly.
“Indigenous communities socialise through customary leaders so that people do not burn forests carelessly, because indigenous communities are synonymous with being close to nature. Of course, without nature there are no indigenous communities. We protect it,” Panglima Jilah said.