Smoke disaster and our responsibility

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