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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Thousands of students across Indonesia have protested for days over the government’s response to toxic haze that has blanketed multiple cities and spread across Southeast Asia in recent weeks.
On Friday, more than 500 protesters gathered outside the Central Kalimantan Governor’s Office in the provincial capital of Palangkaraya, demanding solutions to the haze. Some held signs that read “haze emergency” and “If we burn, you burn with us!”
Protests spread to more than half a dozen Indonesian cities this week, including on the island of Borneo, where many of the fires are burning.
Indonesia’s haze is primarily caused by forest and peatland fires, often started to clear land for farming. While such fires are common during dry season, which usually begins in April, this year’s are the worst on record.
The haze has triggered health concerns and ignited public backlash from Singapore, Malaysia and others in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Student and civil society groups have demanded stronger action on the haze for months. Some called for Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to declare a national emergency and take more aggressive steps to prevent the agricultural practices blamed for fueling the blazes.
Some student-led protests have merged with ongoing demonstrations over Indonesia’s struggling economy.
“In Indonesia, we’re so angry,” said Vincent Thomas, a student at Indonesia’s Universitas Padjadjaran, who joined protests in Bandung. “We want the officials responsible to be held accountable.”
Thousands suffer respiratory illnesses from haze
Many demonstrators on Friday wore thick masks to protect themselves from the air pollution blanketing Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan, which was tinged orange by the haze.
Volunteer firefighters extinguishing blazes around Palangkaraya told The Associated Press that they hoped that rain would come soon.
More than 333,470 residents have suffered acute respiratory illnesses across the seven provinces affected by the haze since mid-August, according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Health.
“We want the government to openly declare a national disaster emergency,” Thomas said. “Not just regarding Kalimantan, but regarding forest fires across the entire country, in every part of Indonesia.”
Jemilah Mahmood, executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, said this is what happens when changing climate meeting damaged environments.
“The lungs of a child in Pontianak or Johor Bahru depend on the health of a peat swamp hundreds of kilometers away,” she said.
Why the haze is so bad this year
Indonesia’s forests were a tinderbox because there was less rain during the wet season.
Experts blame this on extreme heat, climate change and an intensifying El Niño that may be the strongest in living memory.
“The current haze crisis is a real symptom, a real example of how climate change affects our day-to-day lives,” said Syahdiva Moezbar, with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Jakarta.
Air quality worsens in Singapore and Malaysia
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were ranked among the most polluted cities in the world this month by the global air quality monitoring platform IQAir, with many considering this the worst haze crisis to affect the region in over a decade.
Singaporean officials, who have warned the country’s air quality may deteriorate further, are taking legal action against seven companies in Indonesia that Singapore blames for causing the fires.
“For me, the part that does worry me is just the difficulty in getting N95 masks and air purifiers,” said Qiyun Woo, a Singaporean environmentalist. “You just can’t help but worry about your own health, especially when you might not have an air purifier.”
The haze has closed schools in East Timor and been detected in the Philippines.
Slash-and-burn agricultural practices are common across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, with burning seasons typically running from January to April. Regional efforts to tackle the issue have lagged.
“Crises like this test relationships, and the rhetoric this season has been unhelpful on all sides,” said Mahmood at the Sunway Centre. “My worry is not a permanent rupture. It is that blame becomes a habit and gets in the way of the cooperation we need.”