By The Diplomat | Created at 2026-10-02 16:47:05 | Updated at 2026-10-02 17:48:52
12 hours ago
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is the key leader in ASEAN who can and should do better in haze management in the coming years. The current haze situation affecting Southeast Asia is, to a certain extent, a reflection of his leadership and management, given that most of it stems from fires happening in his country.
Forests and peatlands in Indonesia have been burning substantially this year and millions of people in Southeast Asia are suffering as a result. In early September, Kuching had the worst air quality of any large city on earth. Malaysian authorities declared a state of emergency in the Serian district of Sarawak, as the Air Pollutant Index exceeded 500. The Philippines closed schools throughout Metro Manila and more than 12 provinces. The regional haze monitor in ASEAN reached level three, the most severe on the scale.
Indonesia needs to improve its leadership on the haze management issue.
Fire has been used to clear land as it is cheaper than alternative methods. Plantations, companies, and farmers burn the vegetation before the planting season, instead of paying for mechanical clearing. The drained peatlands of Sumatra and Kalimantan also get burnt and this adds fuel to the fire. These fires continue for weeks and release even more toxic particles than an ordinary forest fire. Due to the current El Niño climate cycle, there are drier and longer dry seasons, worsening the situation, as experienced in 1997, 2015, and 2019.
The solutions are relatively straightforward. They are to rewet the drained peatland, enforce a moratorium on new plantation permits in forest and peat areas, punish the recalcitrant companies, and publicize their names so they can be held responsible.
Importantly, there needs to be close tracking of fires and smallholder burning, as well as enhanced local fire-response capacity so as to minimize, control, and extinguish fires before they get out of control. Satellite technology can be used to facilitate the tracking too. These pre-emptive and preventive measures, in addition to effective firefighting capabilities, need to be in place to address this haze situation effectively.
There is precedent for effective action. In 2015, during his first term in office, President Joko Widodo encountered the disastrous 2015 fires, during which 2.6 million hectares were burned and more than a hundred million lives were affected. He created the Peatland Restoration Agency that rewetted more than a million hectares of degraded peat. He also set up a standing haze task force. Furthermore, in 2019, he put a permanent moratorium on new peatlands and primary forest permits.
The results were positive. The fires decreased subsequently. For instance, significant fires in 2023 burned about 1.6 million hectares, a decrease of a million acres compared to 2015. Towards the end of Jokowi’s term in 2024, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry reported a 59.4 percent year-on-year drop in hotspots.
This year, President Prabowo visited fire-hit provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan. He deployed police and military staff on the ground, and in addition to police investigations, he pledged to revoke the permits of guilty companies. However, these efforts may be inadequate. The cumulative hotspots in late July 2026 exceeded the dreadful 2019 numbers. More needs to be done to anticipate and prevent the wildfire problem.
Other than naming the responsible corporations and holding them accountable, there should be the public prosecution of the indicted corporate leaders, open publication of the concession-ownership data and increased resources for peatland wetting, along with enhanced fire-fighting capabilities.
The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, signed in 2002, will only work when the Prabowo administration intentionally and effectively implements the full range of effective, preventive, punitive and responsive measures. Prabowo and his government can implement a combination of measures for the well-being of their citizens and the neighboring countries.
Along with the hundreds of millions in Southeast Asia affected by the haze, we share the hope that the Indonesian administration can be more effective and efficient in managing and reducing the causes of the haze problem, which has plagued Southeast Asia over the past month, so that we can all benefit from cleaner, haze-free air again.
