Smoke disaster and our responsibility

From Media Indonesia

President Soeharto has instructed all relevant government agencies to fight the forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. We can now to see these agencies working to come to grips with the disaster.

All sides have acknowledged that we were late in handling the problem, so that finally it received worldwide attention.

In my opinion, the problem of the fires is not due to the slowness in our efforts, but that there had not been any forethought, related to either the long drought or forest fires.

What is worse is that the related agencies seemingly closed their eyes to the fires perpetrated by estate companies and forest concession holders. Especially so in the areas of Pekanbaru, Dumai and Kubu in the Bengkalis regency, Riau.

In June and July, I passed these areas several times for a survey of forest locations. I saw thick smoke in those areas, but did not see any activities of putting out the fires, while it is known that there are hundreds of active Caltex oil wells in the area.

On Sept. 27, RCTI reported that until then, not one single act of fire extinguishing had been done by the related agencies. After a number of Malaysian volunteers had arrived in Dumai, 50 went straight to the hot spots, with the assistance of only 17 members of the Indonesian Armed Forces. I was saddened by the report.

I wonder who actually gives a helping hand and who receives help? In my opinion, the Indonesian fire-fighting team should consist of 10 times the number of Malaysian volunteers, not the other way round.

The officials of the related agencies should not only be issuing press statements, they should be going to the sites to conduct coordination and mobilizing all the forces in the community -- the plantation owners and logging companies, Armed Forces members -- and they should be working with the Malaysians.

I think if this is done immediately, the forest fires, the smoke of which has disrupted many communities activities, can be stopped, as has been instructed by the President.

SAMSUDIN

Jakarta