SBY's first distress call

SBY's first distress call

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has received his
first telephone call from Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi, offering this country's assistance in dealing with the
repetitive haze that distresses Malaysians every year. This sort
of show could not have been staged every dry season had the
central and regional governments of Sumatra and Kalimantan
started campaigning to prevent their estates and forests from
being burned as early as April or May, at the same time enforcing
the law against perpetrators.

This "distress" phone call for SBY should be the first and the
last, as such forest fires have been inherited from his
predecessors, the biggest of which occurred in 1997-1998 at the
cost of approximately US$9 billion, hitting almost all of the
Southeast Asia region (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 15). So far, there
have not been concrete measures taken as to how a recurrence of
these forest fires can be halted.

The lack of seriousness shown by his predecessors in dealing
with these forest fires must not be repeated by SBY's government,
as the disruptions to social and economic activities are severe.

Malaysian haze haters' disappointment is understandable. They
vent their anger in various forms either by demonstrating in
front of the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, demanding the
Indonesian government to seriously deal with the fires, or going
online in their websites (http://hazeinmy.blogspot.com) demanding
that Indonesians stop choking them every single year (the Post,
Aug. 12).

Malaysian government's offer to help to extinguish the forest
fires is also understandable as their minister of forestry
admitted that many Malaysian estate and wood companies operating
in Indonesia were among the perpetrators of the fires. Sumatran
and Kalimantan soil strata consists of peat soil that is highly
combustible, especially during dry season.

Peat soil is scientifically known as young coal made out of
black or brown decaying plants that is found under the ground in
cool, wet, moorland regions. Once a dry spell hits such regions,
fire can easily take hold in the soil, and it burns both above
and under the ground, making such fires very difficult to put
out.

M. RUSDI, Jakarta