Indonesia Yet to Receive Protest Note from Neighbors over Wildfires - Tempo.co English

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia has not received any note of protest linked to the forest fires that have continued to rage in parts of the country, the impacts of which have been felt by several of its neighbors. 

"To date, we have not received any notes of protest," said Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Yvonne Mewengkang in Jakarta on Thursday.

On the same occasion, ministry spokesperson Vahd Nabyl A. Mulachela added that regardless of whether or not there are complaints from neighboring countries, Indonesia continues to optimize all efforts to mitigate forest and land fires in several regions.

Some of these efforts include large-scale deployment of firefighting personnel and firefighting vehicles, as well as law enforcement against perpetrators of forest fires.

Indonesia also continues to optimize cross-sectoral mobilization by involving communities, business actors, and the private sector in combating forest fires. 

"We continue to coordinate, hold dialogues, and communicate with neighboring countries to address this issue together," she added.

Based on SiPongi data sourced from NASA's Terra/Aqua, SNPP, and NOAA-20 satellites, as of late Tuesday, there was a decline of 400 hotspots on the previous day, bringing the total to 1,037.

Fires have sent plumes of haze into neighboring Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and the Philippines, including the capital, Manila.

Earlier this month, the Malaysian government declared a state of emergency in the Serian region of Sarawak state, which borders Indonesia, due to the haze. The  emergency status was later lifted.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has deployed three helicopters to assist in forest fire handling from September 12 to 19.

The Malaysian government also declared its readiness to provide assistance, but is still awaiting a response from the Indonesian government.

Regarding law enforcement, Indonesian Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni announced on Wednesday, September 16, that the ministry had suspended the business licenses of 26 companies in alleged involvement in the recent forest fires.