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Jokowi to have his office in Palembang on Thursday: Cabinet secretary
A sense of urgency: President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo will temporarily have his office in Palembang, South Sumatra, starting from Thursday
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A sense of urgency: President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo will temporarily have his office in Palembang, South Sumatra, starting from Thursday. By having his office at the center of the haze crisis, Jokowi hopes he can directly monitor land and forest fire extinguishing efforts. (thejakartapost.com/Wienda Parwitasari) (thejakartapost.com/Wienda Parwitasari)
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span class="caption">A sense of urgency: President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo will temporarily have his office in Palembang, South Sumatra, starting from Thursday. By having his office at the center of the haze crisis, Jokowi hopes he can directly monitor land and forest fire extinguishing efforts. (thejakartapost.com/Wienda Parwitasari)
Cabinet secretary Pramono Anung said President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo would arrive in Palembang, South Sumatra, on Thursday, following his decision to shorten his working visit to the US.
President Jokowi would likely have his office either in Sumatra or Kalimantan to make it easier for him to directly monitor efforts to extinguish land and forest fires.
'It is probable that he will have his office in Palembang to monitor the progress of the situation,' said Pramono as quoted by kompas.com in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The cabinet secretary said President Jokowi would fly home using the same route from Washington, DC, in which his presidential flight would transit twice in Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam. As soon as he arrived in Jakarta, the President and his entourage would directly depart to Palembang and was scheduled to arrive in the city at 8 a.m. local time on Thursday.
Pramono said that once he arrived in Palembang, President Jokowi would hold a meeting with the haze disaster control team, dispatched under the coordination of Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, to discuss progress of the handling of land and forest fires. After the meeting, he further said, Jokowi would depart to Musi Banyuasin to observe conditions in the area by taking a land route for around 4-5 hours.
'He will observe several spots,' said Pramono, adding that the government would focus its attention on the areas affected most by the haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Pramono said Palembang was selected as the location of the President's temporary office because presidential aircraft Boeing Business Jet 2 could land in the city.
Earlier, Jokowi was scheduled to carry out a state visit in the US for one week. He departed to the US on Saturday, when haze problems from land and forest fires in Indonesia were at their peak. Jokowi's working visit drew sharp criticism, forcing the President to shorten his trip. He cancelled his plan to visit Silicon Valley, San Francisco, to meet digital economy business players.
Head of the House of Representatives' Commission IV overseeing agriculture, food, forestry, plantations, fisheries and maritime affairs, Edhy Prabowo, said separately that eight House factions had agreed to establish a Pansus (committee) to inquire into the nation's handling of smoke from land and forest fires in several areas across Indonesia.
'Eight factions have agreed on the establishment of the committee. Only NasDem and Hanura have not yet made a decision,' said Edhy.
The eight factions are from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Gerindra Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Democratic Party, the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
Edhy said the Pansus establishment was aimed at primarily pushing the government to immediately resolve the haze problem instead of chasing after the companies deemed responsible for the fires.
House deputy speaker Fadli Zon said he supported the idea of establishing the Pansus due to the government's slow response and lack of seriousness in handling the problem.
'I think establishing this Pansus is an aspiration so that it must be initiated by 25 people at the least and two factions,' said Fadli.
Commission IV deputy head Viva Yoga Mauladi said the committee was needed to create a regulation on fire prevention as Law No. 32/2009 on environment protection and management still had loopholes for clearing land with fires. (ebf)
