The Return of the Haze - "I'll be back..."

I blinked my eyes once, twice, thrice… It’s still blurry. Then I smelled the smoke. Oh, I thought, the haze has finally made its way back to Singapore. It slowly approached the island and surprised me with its presence on Tuesday morning. My morning looked like lala land with using smog as visual effect.

What has Indonesia done now, another forest fire? It seemed pretty bad… And as if the smell of the smoke was not enough, strangely the number of people smoking along my walk to the MRT increased by 4 fold. My lungs immediately screamed for fresh air. Well, I wouldn't get any until I reached MRT premises.

The news said that the haze had come to Singapore since last Thursday, June 13^th, 2013. The worst period was on Monday night, when the PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) showed 155^{^} which falls under ‘unhealthy’ category. Fascinated by the view, I took out my phone and snapped some pictures to record the haze. Sadly, my camera phone couldn't capture the haze quite clearly, making it less visible than seeing it with naked eyes. Indeed, our eyes are the best lens ever made on earth.

view from 19th storey HDB @Mountbatten

view from pedestrian overhead bridge at Central, Clark Quay

In office, my colleagues were discussing about the hot topic, I browsed the internet for news. As stupid as it may be, I was shocked when I read that the forest fire was not caused by accidental fire due to dry season, but deliberately created to ready the land for rubber or palm oil plantations. What?? I thought it was because of some workers who left their cigarettes butts without extinguishing them in the forest and the dry season made it bigger? Apparently no.

I was aware that the haze is an annual problem to Singapore and Malaysia but I never paid attention to the real cause of it. Why would they use fire to clear up the land? Don’t they know it causes smog to Singapore and Malaysia? Surely it was on the news… Is it because it’s easier and cheaper way to prepare the land? Why the government hasn't done anything to stop this? Aren't the locals affected by the smoke too? These questions immediately floated inside my mind.

“Nope, I think the locals are already used to it. They don’t bother about it anymore. They just want to quickly clear the land and don’t care about other people. They are just farmers mah…,” my boss said. “All they care about is money.”

My ears were getting a little bit hot hearing those words from my boss. There’s no way the locals were not affected. They were at the “epicentre” of the fire! But, why? How can they withstand it?

Not willing to absolutely accept my boss’ words, I dug deeper in the web for more facts, and I found an interesting excerpt from Wikipedia^*. Here is the summary of what I found:

Human has used fire for agricultural and hunting purposes since the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic ages, ever since hunter gatherers turned to farming. In the developing world, it is referred to as slash and burn. It is seen as one component of shifting cultivation, as a part of preparing the field for planting. Often called field burning, this technique is used to clear the land from residual crops and weeds. It is a much cheaper choice compared to tillage and or herbicides but because of the smoke produced, stricter regulation has been applied on this technique.

For burning of slash, waste materials left over from logging, several methods are employed. Broadcast burning is the burning of slash scattered over a wide area. Pile burning is burning of the gathered pile of slash at one place. It’s referred to as bonfires. However, pile burning can cause damage to the soil from the high temperature, damaging it chemically, physically or sterilizing it.

Deliberate burning of forest has been used to prevent wildfire in some countries. This technique is often called “controlled burning”, where the forest are burned bit by bit to reduce the amount of flammable materials. Usually this is done during cooler period to prevent wildfire.

Controlled burning reduces fuel, may improve wildlife habitat, controls competing vegetation, improves accessibility, helps control tree diseases, and perpetuates fire dependent species. However, scientists disagree with such a simplistic method, and indicate that each forest need to be assessed separately (I totally agree with this).

So, fire is not bad all the time. We need them, but with correct application. The forest fire in Indonesia was started on a wrong period, causing the wildfire and haze to the neighbouring country. Moreover, they burned on peat land, which is combustible and highly contains carbon. CO₂ emission of peat is higher than that of coal and natural gas. When burnt, it smoulders and can go undetected for months, propagating in a creepy fashion through the underground peat layer^**.

And to prove that my boss was wrong, here is an excerpt of an article from Straits Times about the condition in Dumai, Riau, which neighbouring districts continued to rage in fire.

While the skies above Singapore cleared a little yesterday, the Pollutant Standards Index reading in the coastal city of Dumai, Riau, hit 341 at 4pm as fires continued to rage in neighbouring districts.

"The situation is very critical. These are emergency conditions," city government spokesman Darmawan told The Straits Times.

Visibility was down to 50m in some parts, he said, adding that local officials will meet today to discuss response measures.

Streets in Dumai were near empty as many people stayed indoors, and health officials reminded residents to drink lots of water and wear masks when outside.

(Jun 19^th, 2013, 8am)

However, there’s some truth in my boss’ words, which were they slashed and burned because of money. But, BUT!! The “they” here was not referring to only local farmers/owners of the plantations. Based on a paper published in December 2012^***, the fire attributed to local farmers was estimated around 20%, while the remaining 80% was attributed by plantation companies or their subcontractors. And of this 80%, more than two-thirds of the Indonesia’s total palm oil plantation area in Sumatra and Kalimantan was controlled by Malaysian and Singaporean investors.

Opening up palm oil plantations to foreign investors helped Indonesia overthrew Malaysia as the number one palm oil producer in the world, but it’s not without complications.

There’s a reason why Malaysia and Singapore were able to control more than two-thirds of the total plantation area. Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are all located in the same region, allowing them to have similar cultures. This gave advantage for Singapore and Malaysia over other foreign investors in cultivating trusts and cooperation with locals. Furthermore, there’s a common business culture among South East Asian states, which was patronage politics.

Patronage politics, such as relations with Indonesian elites or others of high status or with valuable knowledge, enabled foreign investors to have thorough knowledge and access to local markets, distribution systems, connections around local bureaucracy and business systems. Since Malaysian and Singaporean plantation investors were familiar with the patronage practices at home, it was easy for them to insert themselves into patronage network in Indonesia.

With politics tangled with business tycoons in the palm oil plantation business, things got muddy, especially when the government was weak.

Even though government had banned slash and burn to clear the land, the strong political / military connection inside the company made it hard to prosecute those who burned illegally.

Indonesia’s Duta Palma, for example, had been known for its notorious track record in illegal burning, but it had never been officially scrutinized, with all the evidence gathered by Greenpeace investigations. It was able to evade justice because of its connections with Indonesian military.

Similarly, Malaysia’s Tabung Haji Plantations (THP) was known to be the cause of the 1997 South East Asia Haze problem. It had caused fires that spread to about 20,000 ha in Sumatra. But due to its director who held various important positions in the Malaysian ruling party’s United Malay National Organization youth wing, no further legal action was taken.

“In this way, patronage politics fosters a culture of impunity that makes it difficult to punish individuals for corrupt behaviours.”

Actually, some of these patrons had been prosecuted under Indonesian law. Indonesia Corruption Watch had identified and investigated several Bupatis in Kalimantan. However, because patronage politics was so widespread, these cases were in the minority.

Government and investors were so blinded by money that they didn't really mind their own country become the victim of the haze. They focused only on how to help the clients maximize their profitability.

So I'd say, stop blaming each other and start doing whatever each party can to reduce the already very hazy and smelly situation in the region. Blaming each other won't bring any relieve to those who suffers, be it in the past, present or in the future. And as an Indonesian, I'd like to say sorry about the haze. I really hope our government can do something about it fast.

In conclusion, I think until the practice of patronage politics and corruption has been thoroughly cleaned up and worked out by these three countries, the Haze will say:

“I’LL BE BACK…”

FAQ:

Q: When will the haze be gone?

A: I don’t know; I'm not a psychic or meteorologist or a weather forecast woman. All I can say is probably until it rains.

Q: Will it immediately be gone after it rains?

A: Err… I don’t think it will be gone immediately like in a magic trick, but surely it will lessen the haze. Let’s just hope for the best, shall we?

Q: Will we die because of the haze?

A: Sure. But not immediately. Eventually, everybody dies anyway.

References:

^* Controlled burn and Wildfire. Retrieved on 20 June 2013.

^** Peat. Retrieved on 20 June 2013.

^*** Varkkey, H. 2013. Patronage politics as adriver of economic regionalization: The Indonesian oil palm sector andtransboundary haze. Retrieved on 20 June 2013.

^ The PSI value is not the latest and is continually updated daily by NEA. The worst is as shown on the screen capture below, on 20 June 2013 at 1pm 3-hours average reading, on 371.

~ Update on 21 June 2013: PSI has reached a new level high of 401, and will probably keep going up until evening time. My company has decided to let us go home early in view of the hazardous haze.

~ something pretty to color up everyone's day in Singapore. A twilight photo I took yesterday outside Lorong Chuan MRT. Not everything is colorless during hazy day apparently :)