Indonesian minister alleges fires in Sarawak cause of haze

KUCHING: Indonesia's Environmental Affairs and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has denied that her country is responsible for the haze blanketing Malaysia, claiming instead that forest fires in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia are to be blamed.

Alleging that there was a cover-up by Malaysia on the source of the smoke, she said in a report by the Indonesian newspaper Kompas that she planned to send a protest note to the Malaysian Ambassador.

“Asap yang masuk ke Malaysia, ke Kuala Lumpur, itu dari Serawak kemudian dari Semenanjung Malaya, dan juga mungkin sebagian dari Kalimantan Barat. Oleh karena itu seharusnya obyektif menjelaskannya. (The smoke that entered Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, is from Sarawak and from Peninsular Malaysia, and also maybe some from West Kalimantan. Therefore, they should be objective in explaining it),” she said.

Siti also urged Malaysia to properly present its data on the haze and not blame Indonesia as the sole cause of the haze.

“Karena pemerintah Indonesia betul-betul secara sistematis mencoba menyelesaikan ini dengan sebaik-baiknya. Tetapi memang harus jelas sumber dari mana, data dari mana. Polanya seperti apa. (This is because the Indonesia government is really systematic in trying to solve this issue as well as possible. But it must be clear where the source is, where the data comes from. What is the pattern),” she said.

She said that based on the results from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the haze only crossed the Indonesian border for one hour on Sept 8.

Indonesia's denial comes despite warnings from the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) that the haze will continue to affect western parts of Peninsula Malaysia and Sarawak, with hotspots expected to persist in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

ASMC added that the southern Asean region would continue to be dry, further exacerbating the conditions.

In its most recent update yesterday ASMC said that persistent hotspots emitting moderate to dense smoke continued to be detected in the central and southern parts of Sumatra.

Meanwhile, Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin yesterday told Siti Nurbaya not to be in denial.

“Let the data speak for itself. The latest data on the total number of hotspots recorded by Asean Specialised Meteorological Center (ASMC): Kalimantan (474), Sumatera (387) vs Malaysia (7),” said Yeo who shared the link to the corresponding website.

She also dismissed Siti Nurbaya's claims that the haze originated from Sarawak by sharing an image of the wind direction, stating that the latter's claim was illogical.

“As for her claim that the haze is from Sarawak, just look at the wind direction. How is it logically possible?

Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas also refuted claims by Siti.

He said there is no way that the haze originated from Sarawak, which itself is a victim of transboundary haze from West Kalimantan.

“I suggest that she should get the right information from the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre which is tracking the haze movement,” said Uggah, who is also the state Disaster Management Committee chairman.