Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto issued a formal apology to Singapore and Malaysia on Sunday for transboundary haze stemming from four months of forest and land fires.
The apology came late on Sunday following the first day of the 49th ASEAN Leaders’ Summit in Manila, CNA reported. Prabowo delivered the remarks on behalf of the Indonesian government and people, assuring regional counterparts that Jakarta has done its utmost to combat the blazes.
The crisis recently put bilateral ties to the test, leading Vivian Balakrishnan to travel to Indonesia last month to meet Prabowo and establish a joint task force.
During Sunday’s plenary session, Prabowo outlined stringent law enforcement actions targeting corporations linked to the blazes. Jakarta maintains a zero-tolerance policy, according to a statement from the Indonesian Presidential Secretariat.
“We have revoked 17 corporate concessions. Twenty-six companies are currently under investigation, and 11 have been charged,” Prabowo said, according to the South China Morning Post. “Another 23 companies are slated to be charged. In total, 104 companies are under investigation by our police force.”
Addressing ASEAN leaders, Prabowo detailed the heavy human and material cost of the containment operations. Indonesia deployed 71,000 personnel to tackle the fires over the four-month period.
“We have deployed 71,000 forest firefighters. We lost 16 people who died, and many more were injured while battling the fire. We also lost two helicopters,” Prabowo explained, according to Kompas. Meanwhile, recent rainfall has brought much-needed relief to the affected areas.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir recently met with Singaporean counterpart Balakrishnan and Malaysian chief diplomat Mohamad Hasan in Manila. The three-way talk yielded a shared assessment that the haze has significantly improved, according to the Jakarta Globe.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong proposed on Sunday that the existing bilateral joint task force be expanded into an ASEAN-wide platform. Such a mechanism would facilitate the sharing of information and evidence to help member states hold accountable the corporations responsible for haze-causing fires.
Prabowo emphasized that Jakarta must transition its strategy away from reactive firefighting toward systematic prevention. The government is preparing to establish a new agency and implement dedicated programs to strengthen future wildfire prevention, ANTARA News reported.
| Action / Measure | Count / Status |
|---|---|
| Corporate Concessions Revoked | 17 companies |
| Companies Under Police Investigation | 104 total (26 active) |
| Formal Charges Filed | 11 companies |
| Pending Charges | 23 companies |
| Personnel Deployed | 71,000 firefighters |
“For us, food and energy are our highest priorities, as are water security and management,” Prabowo said during the plenary session, highlighting broader regional resilience measures alongside environmental enforcement.
