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Letter to the editor: Singapore Embassy clarifies
I refer to your article âSingapore upset by RIâs hazeâ of July 29
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I
refer to your article 'Singapore upset by RI's haze' of July 29. The newspaper's headline and misleading article took comments from Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan out of context and mischaracterized Singapore's position on the transboundary haze issue. The article omitted the following comments also made by Minister Balakrishnan:
He praised President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar's determination and proactive actions to address the problems related to forest fires, suggesting that their good work was reflected in the 'significantly' fewer number of hotspots this year compared with 2014.
There has been good multilateral cooperation and collaboration in this sector. This includes Indonesia's ratification of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution; two memoranda of understanding that Indonesia has in the works with Malaysia and Singapore; Singapore's offers of technical assistance in the form of capacity building and human resource training and development; and Singapore's offer to assist with fire-fighting efforts.
While progress to operationalize the ASEAN Haze Monitoring System has been slow because of administrative and legislative constraints, Singapore hopes that the government-to-government information exchange that has been proposed will send a signal to corporations that they cannot hide from their responsibilities, and that ASEAN member states will collaborate in investigations and eventually prosecutions of transboundary environmental offences.
Singapore and Indonesia have a good working relationship in combating land and forest fires. Since 2005, we have offered a haze assistance package including aircraft for cloud seeding, satellite imagery, hotspot coordinates and technical and capacity building and training.
Transboundary haze is not a problem faced by Indonesia or by Singapore alone. It affects other countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei. A common problem requires a common and collective effort. It is in all our interests to have a haze-free ASEAN as soon as possible.
Nicola-Anne Singh
First Secretary (political)
Embassy of the Republic of Singapore
Jakarta
