Blatantly Disregarding Haze Peril, Riau Allows Farmers To Burn Land

Indonesian forest fires are not expected to let up this year, with a new by-law in the Riau province allowing farmers to burn up to two hectares of their land. The controversial by-law contradicts national law, which bans open burning of forests to clear land except by indigenous people, reports NST.

"The by-law came out in June. It allows the public (farmers) to burn two hectares of land," Bambang Hero Saharjo, a government fire investigator, told the New Straits Times in a telephone interview. Bambang is also the head of the Forest and Land Fire Laboratory at Bogor Agricultural University. "Since the enactment of the law, I have seen an increase in smallholders burning their land."

According to him, the government’s efforts last year to educate the people not to set fires have gone to waste. "I feel very sad about this. We made a lot of effort, teaching people not to burn the land and how to clear the land by chopping down trees," said Bambang. "Whatever gains we have made to reduce forest fires last year have been negated by this by-law. As such, I don’t see fires decreasing this year. The level of fires will remain the same as in 2006," said Bambang.

For the last 20 years, smoke from forest fires in Indonesia has blown across the Straits of Malacca to Malaysia and Singapore, smothering parts of the two countries in a choking haze during the annual dry season. According to Bambang, fires have broken out in the giant Riau province in Sumatra and in central Kalimantan.

***** What can we possibly do to these bastards in Riau? Nothing! Our pemimpin have some influence in Jakarta as long as they play ball with the abang2 there. But as seen in many other cases, the writ of the central government in Indonesia is not absolute and is not always complied with in the provinces and neither does Jakarta have the resources and manpower to enforce its wishes. The haze in previous years is merely confirmation of this.

What about setting things right and reversing the Provincial by-laws by outrightly bribing the corrupt administration in Riau? That might work! After all like the adik2 here, they too I'm sure are more 'amenable' to money power. Well, if any of you smart folks have a bright idea or two, please do let us know.
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Billions Of Ringgit Demanded For Fighting The Haze. Can We Trust The Indons?

Four countries, affected by the recent haze originating from Indonesia, have pledged to contribute RM180,000 each to the ASEAN Haze Fund.

Natural Resource and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said they were Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.

He said they made the pledge to contribute to the fund at the two-day Asean Environmental Ministers' Meeting in Manila, the Philippines, that started from last Nov 9.

"At the meeting, the four countries agreed to contribute to the fund to finance the technical works to fight the haze," he told reporters at the the Padang Besar constituency's Aidilfitri gathering, here Sunday.

He said Indonesia, which had proposed a total of RM22.8 billion expenditure to fight the haze, was willing to come up with half of the amount, while the remaining would be forked out by other haze-affected countries and from the fund.

All the Asean ministers, particularly those from nations that were affected by the haze, had agreed to hold a meeting every three months to discuss the haze issue, he said.

The countries that were affected by the haze had also agreed to adopt an area each in Sumatera and Kalimantan to make planning and implementation of works easier, he said. (BERNAMA)

**** Frankly I can't figure out these numbers. Rm 180,000 won't even buy you a terrace house and yet that is the amount that each nation is paying towards the haze fund! Jakarta on the other hand has asked for about RM11.4 billion from its neighbours. How can these two figures be reconciled? Are we actually going to cough up a couple of billion bucks as our share or are we going to curtail our generosity and stick to terrace house level payments?

We must remember that in many ways Indonesia is a country which sorely lacks accountability (not that we are much better!) and handing over billions of ringgit which may turn up in Swiss Banks rather than any haze-fighting venture is as risky as the haze itself. Still if that is the price we have to pay for the long term health of our citizens we have hardly a choice but to pay up, or is there? Any bright spark out there who has a solution to this sticky problem?