Just a few weeks back, a friend of mine in Jakarta whom I recently befriended through church posted a heartfelt message on her Facebook wall:
Dear friends in Singapore, I'm so sorry for the haze that pollutes Singapore's air caused by forest fires in Sumatra...I really don't know what to say except I apologise... :(
Now of course, what followed was an overwhelming outpouring of support from friends in Singapore, many of whom pointed out the rather plain fact that it wasn't her fault. After all, what can ordinary citizens do? This is Indonesia, where the politics are as choked up as its infamous Jakarta Jam. And while some have made observations that the Jokowi administration has engaged in haze fighting efforts like no other Indonesian administration before, few pundits are even remotely optimistic. Doesn't help that even as Jokowi does his level best to appease Indonesia's neighbours, you get strange leaders like Kalla, the vice-president of Indonesia making strange statements like:
“For 11 months, they enjoyed nice air from Indonesia and they never thanked us. They have suffered because of the haze for one month and they get upset,”
-Mr Kalla, Vice-President, 3 March 2015
“Singapore shouldn’t be like children, in such a tizzy,”
- Mr Agung Laksono, then Minister, 2013
We could draw the conclusion that the persistence of the haze issue stems from the lack of political unity and decisive leadership. On the one hand, you have leaders like Jokowi who are trying to act as a leading ASEAN nation should, with courage, responsibility and plain sensibility. Then you have parochial politicians like Kalla, who think only of posturing, and pandering to national pride. Which I think is the main reason why till now, Indonesia has been unable to take a decisive position on whether it would accept help from its neighbours, namely, Singapore and Malaysia. It's hard to accept help from the former, which has often been the target of ridicule by Indonesian politicians since Independence (c.f. former President B.J. Habibie's comment on Singapore as that 'little red dot' in 1998). The fact that the Jakarta administration has chosen to do so instead of addressing poverty issues, the lack of regulation and enforcement, and issues of corruption which are root causes which exacerbate the haze crisis is all the more frustrating.
I feel a great sense of injustice for my friends in Jakarta, and the many who suffer from the haze of political nonsense. Quite recently, there've been a series of reports on ordinary Indonesians, returning to their normal lives. I can't tell if it's false bravado or utter resignation. But one thing is for sure, I don't think we should be accepting what a Channel NewsAsia report called 'the new normal: life goes on for Indonesians in spite of the haze'. Frankly, life HAS gone on as per normal for wealthy Indonesians. It's the ordinary folk, those who live in the slums of the Jakarta metropolis, those who are homeless, those who can't afford air conditioning, let alone air filters, who bear the brunt of the haze crisis.
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| Photocredits: ChannelNewsAsia |
As for Singaporeans, I think to their credit, they have matured a little. Unlike previous years, you don't really hear much of xenophobic "those Indonesians" slurs. In fact, the discourse has evolved such that instead of simply calling on the Singapore government to do something about the situation, there have been a number of grown up initiatives to combat the issue e.g. movements to boycott companies linked to illegal forrest clearing in Indonesia. Though of course, in characteristic Singapore fashion, the discourse rarely moves into the terrain of Human rights. Mainly, it's been course in apolitical, safe language like 'caring for the environment'. Going forward, I hope that we will soon grow behind the mindset of thinking about the haze in terms of how it affects us, and instead, how we can stand in solidarity with ordinary Indonesians, especially the poor, who suffer.
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