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Singapore and Indonesia spar as haze breaks new high
Bloomberg - June 21, 2013
"There's clearly a lot of frustration, a lot of anger here in Singapore," Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs and former chairman of the NEA, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. "Not just from the Singaporeans, from the various foreigners who have planted offices here in Singapore, who have made a home here in Singapore, who want to live in a global city."
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday he expressed "serious concern" in a letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and requested evidence that Singaporean or Malaysian companies were responsible for the "illegal burning," as suggested by some Indonesian officials.
Disputes between the two neighbors flare up regularly over haze. The Malay Peninsula has been plagued for decades by forest fires in Sumatra to the west and Kalimantan on Borneo island to the east. "Singapore should not be behaving like a child and making all this noise," Agung Laksono said yesterday in Jakarta.
Malaysia and Singapore should pressure both the Indonesian government and palm-oil companies that are burning forests to clear the way for plantations to halt the practice, Barry Desker, dean of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said in an e-mail.
"There is no significant impact in Jakarta and it is not a major priority for the Jakarta-based political elite, which is preoccupied with the hike in petrol prices," Desker said. "Pressure must be put on Indonesia to stop the problem at its source."
While diplomatic ties wobble at times over haze and other issues, Indonesia and Singapore have strong economic links. Singapore's total trade with Indonesia was S$79.4 billion ($62.3 billion) in 2012, according to government trade promotion agency IE Singapore. Indonesia is Singapore's fourth-largest trading partner.
The relationship between Singapore and Indonesia is a "very broad and largely positive one," Tay from the Singapore Institute of International Affairs separately told Bloomberg. "As a whole, Indonesia needs Singapore and Singapore can play a useful role in Indonesia. It's still very symbiotic in many ways."
Singapore's prime minister said the fires were caused by errant companies and were not likely to just be smallholders slashing and burning. He said it was not fruitful to respond to Indonesian minister Laksono's comments.
"We need to work on the problem rather than exchanging harsh words," Lee said, repeating an offer to help Indonesia. Singapore has provided satellite data to help identify the companies responsible for the fires.
Cloud seeding
Malaysia's Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister James Dawos Mamit said his country was also willing to send firefighters. "If they need our help, we will offer whatever assistance we can," Dawos was quoted by the New Straits Times as telling reporters yesterday. The Indonesian forestry ministry plans to induce rain by seeding clouds, Channel NewsAsia reported yesterday.
Environment ministers from Singapore and Indonesia are scheduled to meet in Jakarta today, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed Indonesian officials to immediately tackle the problem, Natalegawa said.
The pollution will hit tourism-related industries in Singapore, which make up about 5-6 percent of the economy, as well as construction, Joey Chew, an economist at Barclays Plc, said in a research note on the haze yesterday. A disruption for one week could cost the economy about $1 billion, Barclays economist Wai Ho Leong said in an e-mail on June 19.
Stay indoors
Lee said Singaporeans could expect a higher incidence of respiratory diseases, offered medical financial assistance to the young and elderly and urged people to stay indoors where possible. Singapore's armed forces have stopped field training, the Straits Times reported yesterday.
Lower visibility from the smog has prompted Singapore's Changi Airport to increase the time between aircraft takeoffs and landings, the aviation authority said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg. The island's secondary airport at Seletar in the northeast will remain closed until 2 p.m. due to "prolonged poor visibility," Changi Airport said.
Ships were advised to navigate with caution, the port authority said in an e-mail. Singapore Flyer, which operates the city-state's ferris wheel, suspended operations yesterday. In south Malaysia, children at kindergartens were sent home, according to the The Star.
Plantation companies
Indonesia's Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said yesterday the government had identified more than 100 fire hot spots in the Riau region of Sumatra, of which 80 percent are within farm and plantation areas and 20 percent in forests.
Major companies with palm oil plantations in Indonesia, such as Singapore-listed Wilmar International Ltd. (WIL), Malaysia's Sime Darby Bhd. (SIME), the world's biggest listed palm oil producer, and Cargill Inc., told Bloomberg they had a zero-burning policy.
Half of the fires detected between June 11-18 were in areas that should have been protected by an Indonesian moratorium on clearing forest, said environmental campaign group Greenpeace by e-mail.
"The fact that these fires continue to affect the region shows just how poorly forest protection measures are enforced in Indonesia," said Yuyun Indradi, forest campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, in the statement.
If there were a "silver bullet" Indonesia would have shot it by now, said former NEA chairman Tay. "There are serious issues here about industry, about the climate, and about climate change gases, which is a complex issue across a very large country called Indonesia."
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