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RI seals land owned by Malaysian, Singaporean firms
Friendly neighborhood: A resident wearing a superhero costume helps personnel of the Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency and the Indonesian Military to extinguish a fire in a peatland area in Rimbo Panjang, Kampar regency, Riau, on Thursday
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riendly neighborhood: A resident wearing a superhero costume helps personnel of the Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency and the Indonesian Military to extinguish a fire in a peatland area in Rimbo Panjang, Kampar regency, Riau, on Thursday.(Antara/Rony Muharrman)
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said the government had sealed off land owned by three Malaysian palm oil companies and one Singaporean company, blaming them for causing land and forest fires in Riau and West Kalimantan.
“There are four Singaporean and Malaysian companies,” she told reporters on Friday after a meeting with other ministers to discuss wildfire mitigation.
Siti named the palm oil companies in question. Three of them, namely Sime Indo Agro, Rafi Kamajaya Abadi and Sukses Karya Sawit, are West Kalimantan-based subsidiaries of Malaysian conglomerates. A plantation owned by PT Hutan Ketapang Industri, which is owned by a Singaporean firm, was also sealed.
Lee Yeow Seng, the son of the CEO of IOI Corporation, which owns Sukses Karya Sawit, is reportedly the husband of Malaysian Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin, who previously said Siti was “in denial” for questioning her complaint about the haze.
Smog in Malaysia has turned into a blame game between authorities of the neighboring countries over the past week, with Malaysia saying wildfires in Indonesia were responsible for the choking haze that led to the temporary closure of hundreds of schools. The Malaysian government sent half a million face masks to Sarawak this week.
Most recently, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was planning to write to his Indonesian counterpart President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to express his concern over transborder haze, according to Yeo.
Reuters, meanwhile, reported a spokeswoman for Jakarta-based Minamas Plantation, a Sime Darby unit that runs the group's Indonesian operations, had said it was not aware of its plantation having been sealed off and that it was monitoring its lands for hot spots.
Sime Darby and IOI both said they were checking their Indonesian operations. Sukses Karya Sawit and Rafi Kamajaya Abadi could not be reached.
Yeo also told Reuters on Friday that Jakarta should take action against those who caused the fires.
"Indonesia should take action against the perpetrators of the forest fires, regardless of who they are and without fear or favor, according to the law of the land. Most importantly, the forest fires must be extinguished as soon as possible," she said.
Siti said while smog from fires in Sumatra might have crossed over to Malaysia on Friday, haze in Malaysia that occurred between Sept. 3 and 7 had not come from Indonesia.
"But, this is still being monitored every hour, because it changes rapidly and the government has intensified efforts to prevent [fires],” Siti said.
She insisted that fires detected last week in Malaysia had contributed to worsening air quality there and challenged Yeo to compare the data showing the number of hot spots that resulted in the prolonged haze in the region.
Yeo used data from the ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Center (ASMC), which on Thursday showed 974 hot spots in Kalimantan and Sumatra, compared to just 10 in Malaysia. The number had spiked on Wednesday, with 1,188 hot spots recorded in Kalimantan and 431 hot spots in Sumatra, compared to only five in Malaysia.
Siti said the ASMC data was captured from 1,000 meters, while Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) monitored the hot spots and haze at a much closer distance of 100 m and far more frequently, on an hourly basis.
“I would love to [compare the data]. In fact, it is not just about the data but also the methodology. If necessary let’s compare the two platforms,” Siti said.
Jokowi, meanwhile, declined to comment when asked about the haze.
Indonesia has deployed 46 helicopters for water bombing and cloud seeding, Environment and Forestry Ministry fire mitigation director Raffles Brotestes Panjaitan said.
Around 2,000 environment ministry officials and 5,800 Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel as well as local volunteers have also taken part in efforts to tackle haze and fires.
