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Indonesia
This Week in AsiaHealth & Environment

The haze is back. Can Malaysia and Indonesia clear the air?

  • Putrajaya has blamed – and offered help to – Jakarta, which denies full responsibility for the poor air quality
  • The smog poses a health hazard to the region, while it also has negative consequences for business and tourism

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The Kuala Lumpur skyline, including the Petronas Twin Towers, is shrouded in haze on September 11, 2019. Photo: AFP
Tashny Sukumaran
Across Malaysia, skies are grey and the air smells strongly of woodsmoke – a sign that the country’s annual haze problem has returned with a vengeance.
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The government has pointed the finger at – and offered its assistance to – neighbouring Indonesia, which is grappling with out-of-control forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Jakarta has denied full responsibility for the smoggy air choking the region, despite the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre maintaining that the source of the haze was most likely Indonesia.

Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry yesterday said satellite imagery had picked up on “a significant increase in the number of hotspots in some Asean regions … Not only in Indonesia, but also occurring mainly in Peninsular Malaysia and some of Vietnam”.

Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar officially denied Malaysia’s accusation via a démarche she said was on its way to her counterpart, Malaysia’s Yeo Bee Yin. Yeo has reiterated Malaysia’s offer to assist Indonesia in extinguishing the forest fires, noting the impact of persistent transboundary haze on the Malaysian public after a meeting with the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Air quality in neighbouring Singapore remains at moderate levels thanks to favourable wind conditions, but is still worse than last week.

The last major bout of smog, in October 2015, engulfed Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia for over a month and was one of the worst cases of haze on record. It caused flights to be grounded and schools to be shut, while tens of thousands of people sought medical treatment for respiratory problems. Before that, the previous major bout of haze was in 2013.

Meanwhile, Malaysian business owners, activists and citizens fret over the economic consequences and health impacts of the haze, an annual occurrence the nation has tolerated for years. Among those hit hard are the country’s fleet of motorcycle delivery riders, gig-economy workers attached to delivery-service companies such as FoodPanda and Grab, raising questions about the need for a risk allowance as air quality levels continue to deteriorate.

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