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Govt ordered to build lung hospital for fire survivors
Indonesia made headlines around the globe in 2015 when the country was engulfed in raging forest and land fires, which spawned thick smoky haze that raised air pollution in Singapore and Malaysia to levels between those considered moderate and unhealthy
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span>Indonesia made headlines around the globe in 2015 when the country was engulfed in raging forest and land fires, which spawned thick smoky haze that raised air pollution in Singapore and Malaysia to levels between those considered moderate and unhealthy.
The smoke affected a large number of people in the region. A study by Harvard University researchers in 2016 estimated that the 2015 pollution from intense fires located close to population centers caused up to 100,000 premature deaths across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Local environmentalists also predicted that the disaster caused around half a million cases of acute respiratory infection.
Four years later, the Supreme Court upheld rulings by lower courts in favor of a civil lawsuit that sought to lay the blame on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his Cabinet ministers, as well as regional administrations, for failing to control wildfires in Sumatra and Kalimantan in 2015.
The lawsuit — filed by environmentalists and citizens residing in Central Kalimantan who were among the most affected by the disaster — urged the government and regional administrations to take responsibility for the wildfires, as well as for the treatment of survivors.
Supreme Court spokesman Abdullah told journalists on Friday that the court justices rejected the government’s appeal against the Palangkaraya High Court’s earlier decision in favor of the plaintiffs.
“The conclusion is the government should fulfill its obligation to protect its citizens against the disaster. It should work on necessary efforts to stop wildfires from happening,” he said.
According to the ruling upheld by the Supreme Court justices, the court ordered the President —along with the environment and forestry minister, health minister and Central Kalimantan governor — to build a lung hospital that provides free treatment for the 2015 haze victims. It also ordered other hospitals in the province to provide free treatment for the victims.
Moreover, the court ordered the environment and forestry minister and the governor to announce publicly the name of companies that owned the land that burned in 2015, as well as the amount of each corporation’s environmental guarantee fund.
The court also ordered Jokowi to issue several government regulations (PP), as derivatives of Law No. 32/2009 on environmental protection, to stipulate guidelines for recovery measures involving environmental destruction. The law ordered the government to issue such guidelines one year after signing the law.
As of July, the government has yet to issue the mandated PP.
Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko was the first to respond to the Supreme Court ruling, saying the government had made some efforts to extinguish and prevent potential forest and land fires across the country.
“We have done several measures on the ground, as well as issue important regulations, but the Supreme Court issued such a ruling. Therefore, we will improve our work in the future,” he said.
When asked whether the government would request a case review against the ruling, he answered: “Definitely. Officials from the government law office will prepare the necessary effort.”
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said the case review was the government’s effort to “assert on our measures to prevent more large wildfires”.
“We have changed our approach in dealing with the fires. Instead of extinguishing fires, we tend to prevent the fire from spreading. We also try to get every stakeholder to be involved in such measures, including corporations,” Siti said in a statement.
She added that an important breakthrough made by Jokowi’s administration was tougher law enforcement for any parties suspected of causing forest and land fires. Not only individuals, law enforcers started to prosecute corporations that owned the land that burned by slapping them with criminal charges and administration sanctions.
Activists slammed the government for its plan to file a case review request against the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying the plan would show that the government was not serious in preventing and mitigating wildfires.
Arie Rompas of Greenpeace Indonesia said the government had undertaken several measures to prevent large wildfires similar to the one in 2015 from reoccurring in the future.
“The least they can do is to accept the ruling and match what they have done with our demands in the lawsuit. If they keep rejecting the ruling, it means they violate the law and this would be a bad precedent.”
