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Monday, July 29, 2013

Haze – no effective solution as yet

Citing the trans-boundary haze as a “problem” is an understatement.
COMMENT
The Indonesian haze has returned after a few weeks of relief. Akin to the 1983 American space drama Star Wars, “The Return of Jedi,” there is little cause of excitement but deep disappointment in the hearts of the millions who had experienced difficulties and disruption to their routine lifestyle.
Despite the major incidents in 1977 and 1988, the haze problem remains unresolved for over two decades. It was then the haze was recognised as one of the most damaging environmental catastrophe.
Being the most affected, Malaysia and Singapore has found no reprieve despite the Trans-Boundary Haze Pollution Agreement signed among the Asean countries in 2003.
Effective actions have been absent. Indonesia has also yet to ratify the agreement though it is the primary source of the haze.
“Prosper thy neighbour” a catchy phrase coined during the Mahathir era has indeed taken an ironic twist. We are instead being rewarded with a long lasting trans-boundary haze in return for promise of bilateral cooperation to enhance economic and cultural ties.
The perennial smog is now merely dubbed as “the haze” has grown into a national catastrophe over the years threatening and endangering the health of millions. Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore are the hardest hit by the haze originating from Sumatran fires and other Indonesian provinces.
Citing the trans-boundary haze as a “problem” is an understatement. Patience and goodwill among a large segment of the Malaysian society towards this hazy problem is running thin over the years.
Upon asking some concerned individuals on the street, the main questions that surfaced are: why did the Malaysian government adopt a lackadaisical attitude towards Indonesia in handling the haze issue for the past 15 years?
Is the health of our people less important than the profits reaped by the Malaysian-owned corporations in causing the haze with open burning? Where is the enforcement?
Exactly how many Malaysian plantations and other land-based commodity companies in Indonesia are involved in the burning?
Malaysians too question on the slow paced efforts and incompetence shown by both governments and other Asean members in tackling the haze problem. Have diplomatic sensitivities and other economic considerations taken more importance?
The damage caused by the haze is significant and it has been making an annual “comeback” especially during the months between June and September which experiences a dry season.
How much longer must we suffer? Will there ever be light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a permanent solution?
Nothing much has changed
In 1995, the former Indonesian PM Suharto issued an unprecedented apology for the forest fires which spewed smoke covering the Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.
“Satellite pictures have led the Suharto government to believe that most of the companies which start the fires are oil palm plantations, now in the midst of frenzied expansion as international demand for palm oil surges,” Far Eastern Economic Review, a regional news magazine reported then.
It was also reported that a number of rubber estates and tree plantations were among the 176 companies named by the then Forestry Minister Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo in mid-September in 1997.
“These plantation owners are suspected of flouting a 1995 ban on burning forest to clear land,” the minister reportedly told the press.
According to news reports, Suharto reiterated the ban in September 1997 and companies were given until October 3 that year to prove they were not the culprits. Those failing to meet the deadline would face evocation of their land-use licenses and possible criminal prosecution.
To-date nothing has changed much, despite the fact that in 1997, the then Malaysian minister of Science, Technology and Environment Law Hieng Ding warned Malaysian companies involved in the haze that they would not get special treatment if proven guilty.
“Whenever they go overseas, they are advised to stick to the local laws of the country,” the Malaysian minister told the Asean community talks in Jakarta, adding, “Whoever doesn’t comply has to face the laws.”
For long Malaysians feel aghast and disgusted with the annual haze menace. Various NGOs demand the Malaysian government to name the culprits involved.
A study by J Jackson and Elizabeth McRae in 2012 on the Trans-Boundary Haze in South-East-Asia-Challenges and Pathways Forward, wrote: “Trans-Boundary haze has wide ranging impacts in SEA on public health, tourism, biodiversity and national economies.
“In recent decades, the potential economic and financial benefits from timber and the production of commodities such as palm oil have seen larger logging companies and plantation owners in Indonesia come to account for a major part of the deforestation.
“Much of the deforestation by large scale concerns has occurred in the lowlands of Sumatra and Kalimantan,” the co-authors wrote, adding that these two areas had experienced an annual forest loss of almost 3.5 per cent during the 1990s.
Corporate culprits
This explains why the haze problem affecting the region has worsened over the decade. There has been almost 40 per cent of deforestation between 1995 and 2005.
In 1997,the Indonesian government pinned most of the blame on corporate culprits rather than the slash and burn farmers, as in previous years.
A Kalimantan NGO that monitored green issues told the Far Eastern review news magazine, “The fire is only a symptom of the takeover of people’s land by big businesses.”
Currently there seems no effective solution the haze problem. The Indonesian authorities are indeed a stumbling block to any meaningful action.
Neither is there any welcoming assurance that the haze will not worsen. Billions have been lost in terms of businesses, school closures, health and even transportation to name a few.
Stanley Koh is a FMT columnist.

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