Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto spent Monday in Sumatra telling companies he is not joking about haze. If investigators find even a hint that a firm ordered land burned, he said, “we will revoke their licences.” Police and prosecutors are already looking at the fires. He also told local governments, the military, and police to help villagers clear land without setting it on fire, and to get water on hotspots instead of waiting. Helicopters, cloud-seeding, and satellite hotspot maps are in use. Local media cited by CNA put the burned area across Sumatra and Kalimantan at about 85,000 hectares.
The smoke did not stay in Indonesia. On Monday, the Swiss monitor IQAir ranked Kuching, in Malaysian Sarawak, as having the worst air among the world’s major cities. By Tuesday, Malaysia’s Department of Environment still had about 30 stations in the “unhealthy” band. Sarawak was the worst of it. Serian’s reading sat near 180, shy of the “very unhealthy” line at 201, with Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, and Sarikei also unhealthy. The Klang Valley was in it too: Shah Alam, Putrajaya, parts of Kuala Lumpur, and surrounding Selangor towns all crossed 150. Singapore’s National Environment Agency warned of “occasional periods of haze” after more hotspots over the weekend.
Indonesia’s Environment Ministry satellite count, as reported Tuesday, put South Sumatra at the top of the hotspot list, followed by West and Central Kalimantan, then East Kalimantan, Riau, West Papua, and Jambi. Malaysian officials described a mix of transboundary smoke from Kalimantan, local peat and forest fires, a dry El Niño spell, and open burning on both sides of the border. They told high-risk groups — children, older people, pregnant women, anyone with heart or lung trouble — to stay indoors, wear masks, and not light anything.
This is an old ASEAN problem in a bad year. Japan Times reported that Malaysia and Brunei have been looking for a regional diplomatic path rather than a public blow-up, even as Kuching’s air made global rankings. Prabowo’s permit threat is the domestic political piece: a public warning to companies while the smoke is still sitting on Palangka Raya, Kuching, and the Klang Valley. Whether licences actually get pulled, and whether that changes the fire map, is the next test. The readings in Sarawak on Tuesday suggested the fires were still winning.
