State Secretary explains Forestry and Environment Ministers' absence from forest fire coordination meeting

State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi explained that Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni and Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat were absent from the forest and land fire (karhutla) handling coordination meeting led by President Prabowo Subianto because they had previously gone directly to affected areas.

Prasetyo said the absence of the two ministers from the series of coordination meetings in Kalimantan and Sumatra was merely coincidental, as both had already conducted visits to several areas affected by forest and land fires.

“It was coincidental because the Forestry Minister has visited the field several times, including in South Sumatra, and the Environment Minister also visited here, South Sumatra, yesterday. So this is just a coincidence,” Prasetyo said at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport, Palembang, South Sumatra, on Monday.

Prasetyo said the forest and land fire handling coordination meeting led by the President on Monday was more focused on increasing personnel and equipment strength, especially those that could be provided by the TNI and Polri.

“Today the President is indeed focused on inviting the TNI Commander and the National Police Chief to add strength if personnel or equipment are needed, including helicopters for water bombing, and then there was a request for modified trail motorbikes,” he said.

President Prabowo on Monday led a forest and land fire handling coordination meeting in Riau and Palembang, South Sumatra.

The meeting involved the regional leadership coordination forum (forkopimda) from four provinces in Sumatra, namely Riau and South Sumatra in person, as well as Jambi and Lampung via video conference.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of TNI and Polri leadership as well as a number of ministers and agency heads, including Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, State Intelligence Agency Head M. Herindra, State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi, and Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya.

In addition, Army Chief of Staff General Maruli Simanjuntak and Head of the Defence Logistics Agency of the Ministry of Defence Air Vice Marshal Yusuf Jauhari were present.

Last week, President Prabowo also led a forest and land fire handling coordination meeting in West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.