LETTER: DURING every haze episode, the sky turns grey, schools are closed, flights are cancelled, and kids start coughing.
Whenever the transboundary haze blankets the region, a familiar Indonesian narrative surfaces: Malaysian and Singaporean plantation companies are to blame for burning the land.
If it's true, the answer is simple. Act! Let's look at how corporate governance and territorial law actually work.
First, local incorporation: No foreign plantation operates in a legal vacuum. To hold land concessions in Sumatra or Kalimantan, a company must be incorporated domestically and licensed by local authorities.
Second, absolute jurisdiction: Those companies operate on Indonesian soil.
They are bound by Indonesian environmental law.
Third, exclusive enforcement power: Only the host government has the legal authority to audit concessions, freeze local bank accounts, revoke operating permits, or imprison negligent directors.
Therefore, Indonesia should impose fines, prosecute, revoke the licences of relevant plantation companies and close them down.
Now, flip that scenario. What would
happen if Singaporean or Malaysian authorities marched across the border to arrest executives or seize plantation assets inside Indonesia, ala-Trump style?
Jakarta would rightly call it an outrageous violation of national sovereignty.
You cannot fiercely guard your sovereignty when foreign investment walks in the door, and then outsource your law enforcement when smoke starts rising from the peatlands.
When a host country blames foreign-owned subsidiaries for decades of environmental destruction on its own soil, it leaves only three logical conclusions:
The laws are too weak to stop corporate arson; the enforcement machinery is too broken to police the concessions and vested interests are too entrenched to let the law work as intended.
None of this lets irresponsible corporations off the hook. Bad actors should face ruthless scrutiny from investors, banks, and consumers in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments mean nothing if they stop at national borders.
Stop using company nationality as a diplomatic smokescreen.
Publish transparent concession maps, prosecute offending subsidiaries regardless of who owns the parent company, and permanently revoke the licences of repeat offenders.
CHEW KOK LIANG
Petaling Jaya,
Selangor
*The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Time
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