State Secretary Reveals Why Forestry and Environment Ministers Missed Forest Fire Coordination Meeting
State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi explained that Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni and Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat did not attend the forest and land fire (karhutla) coordination meeting led by President Prabowo Subianto because they had previously gone directly to affected regions.
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 karhutla-affected areas.
“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 in Palembang, South Sumatra, on Monday.
Prasetyo said the karhutla coordination meeting led by the President on Monday focused more on increasing personnel and equipment strength, particularly what the TNI and Polri could provide.
“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 there was also a request for modified trail motorbikes,” he said.
President Prabowo on Monday led a karhutla 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 several ministers and agency heads, including Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, State Intelligence Agency Head M. Herindra, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, and Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya.
Also present were Army Chief of Staff General Maruli Simanjuntak and Head of the Defence Logistics Agency at the Ministry of Defence Air Vice Marshal Yusuf Jauhari.
Last week, President Prabowo also led karhutla coordination meetings in West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.