Toxic smog from intense seasonal wildfires is choking millions across Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia during an unusually strong El Niño, prompting Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to condemn slash-and-burn farming as ecological terrorism and officials to suspend corporate operating licences as angry residents file class-action lawsuits.
Nusantara Atlas recorded 1,043,377 wildfire hotspots across Indonesia, scorching a total of 900,000 hectares of land as dense smog turns skies over Kalimantan and Sumatra an ominous amber, drifting past national borders to obscure Singapore’s skyline and force school closures in Malaysia.
Farming Practices Drive Blazes
Traditional slash-and-burn clearing creates nutrient-rich soil for new crops, but commercial farming operations now employ the practice on a much larger scale.
Activists and government investigations point to companies using fire as a cheap method to clear large tracts of land, and while the practice is illegal in Indonesia, enforcing the ban has proved difficult.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto branded the practice ecological terrorism
and called for tougher sanctions as persistent haze this year pushed authorities to step up efforts to punish offenders. Last month, authorities suspended the operating licences of 26 companies linked to the wildfires, vowing to take criminal cases to court.
A Greenpeace report identified companies based in Singapore and Malaysia linked to Indonesian land plots where fires are burning. Singapore-based palm oil producer First Resources recorded more than 30 haze source points between August and September on land managed by two Indonesian subsidiaries.
First Resources defended its operations, stating that it maintained a strict zero burning policy across all planting activities and implement robust fire prevention, monitoring and firefighting measures throughout our operations
.
Malaysian plantation group Kuala Lumpur Kepong was also named after its subsidiary, PT Menteng Jaya Sawit Perdana, managed land in Indonesia where 19 haze source points appeared.
Kuala Lumpur Kepong countered that a majority
of the fires originated outside its concession area and had all been extinguished, adding that it do not condone or permit the use of open burning for land preparation or any other purpose across our operations
.
Diplomatic Friction Tests Regional Ties
Singapore passed the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act in 2014 to take action against local and foreign firms contributing to the haze. When Singapore issued summonses to suspected Indonesian companies the following year, Jakarta protested that the move harmed bilateral ties and refused to cooperate.
Similar friction emerged last weekend when Syahganda Nainggolan, who leads Indonesia’s government communications agency, argued that the fires were beyond human control. He remarked that the oxygen in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia also comes from our forests
and added, When there is no smoke, we send oxygen
.
That video, widely circulated on social media, drew criticism and ridicule from Malaysians and Singaporeans. Indonesian officials have thanked Singapore and Malaysia for offering assistance to tackle the wildfires, although Jakarta has not officially requested international support. Indonesia has also apologized to its neighbors for the haze in the past.
Citizens Demand Legal Accountability
Several groups in Pontianak, located in West Kalimantan province, filed a class action lawsuit against the Indonesian government and Prabowo, accusing them of gross negligence
over the recurrent toxic smog.
Plaintiffs want officials to declare the haze a national disaster to unlock recovery measures, including government-funded healthcare costs. A similar lawsuit filed last year in South Sumatra was dismissed.
Air pollution levels in Kalimantan and Sumatra have stayed at dangerous thresholds for weeks, forcing residents to endure hazardous conditions daily.
I’m short of breath and have a headache breathing air now.
Imrayedi, motorcycle taxi driver in Pekanbaru city, via BBC Indonesian