The PSI stood at an unhealthy 155 at 10 pm last night. The Minister of
Environment and Water Resources has now conveyed his deep distress about the
haze - the worst in seven years - to his Indonesian counterpart. The Minister
for Foreign Affairs, K Shanmugam, has also registered Singapore's concerns
about the worsening haze situation to the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister.
In offering the Singapore government's assistance, the Minister for Environment and Water Resources suggested that
the Indonesians name the companies responsible for the fires. The Minister, Dr
Vivian Balakrishnan, said that he was waiting for Indonesia to publish the
concession maps, for with these maps, in combination with satellite photos, the
errant companies would be better pin-pointed. In his Facebook post, Dr Vivian
insinuated commercial boycott of such errant companies.
Haze is not a new problem. Year-after-year, the Singapore government has
complained to the Indonesian authorities about this environmental predicament. Complaining to Indonesia will
only do that much especially since Indonesia has not even ratified the ASEAN
Agreement of Transboundary Haze Pollution - a regional
arrangement that binds a group of contiguous states to tackle transboundary
haze pollution resulting from land and forest fire.
What's new is that this is probably the first time a
Cabinet Minister of Singapore has hinted at a boycott of products that come
from the companies responsible for these forest fires.
This suggestion of a boycott comes at a time when the
Indonesian Forestry Ministry official
commented that the governments of Singapore and Malaysia has to take
some responsibility for the haze, saying these governments should "tell their investors to adopt proper
measures so we can solve this problem together."
MP for Tampines
GRC weighing in on this comment by the Indonesian ministry official said:
"Indonesia is being quite
disingenuous to try shift the blame for the haze to other countries like
Singapore and Malaysia. It is up to Indonesia to prosecute commercial
companies, regardless of ownership, which cause transboundary haze pollution.
All ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, already have domestic legislation
which prohibits the use of fire for forest clearance in their own countries.
The local authorities must enforce it. There are currently no legal sanctions
which Singapore can apply against plantation companies whose extra-territorial
actions affect our local environment.
What Singaporeans can do is to
apply commercial pressure by boycotting products that come from these companies
in Indonesia responsible for the land and forest fires, and to demand for
products that come from sustainable sources. It should not matter the ownership
of the companies. Then perhaps Indonesia will learn that we mean business."
The shift of blame to irresponsible
corporations by the Singapore government is also relatively new. In the past,
small farmers were blamed for the forest fires. But the work of Indonesian
environmental groups like Wahli,
which have pointed out that it is large palm oil plantations that are the main
culprits in clearing land by burning, to minimise costs of heavy equipment and
hiring enough workers, have made it that much difficult for small farmers to be
blamed.
The fact is, Indonesian laws allow
companies to use fires to clear land if they get a permit; and with corruption,
collusion and problems with law enforcement, the burning of crops to clear land
in the dry season is here to stay with us for a long time.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong too has now commented on the haze. In
posting a picture of the hazy situation from Istana, he has said that its quite
unfortunate that "the winds are blowing the
smoke all the way to Singapore".
But instead of wishing for the wind gods to unleash the
winds in our favour, instead of calling for consumers to boycott products of
companies responsible for this haze without providing a list of products and
brands to avoid, instead of just conveying deep distress to the Indonesian
government, there must surely be something more our Singapore government can
do.
Singapore has had its own
Haze Task Force headed by the National Environment Agency's Director-General
for Environmental Protection since 2005. The tasks of this task force is to
develop a National Haze Action Plan, and to formulate strategies to help
ameliorate the impacts of haze on the population.[i] Singapore is now experiencing the worst haze in seven years, but the populace
is unaware if there is National Haze Action Plan, and if there is one, what are the tactics
of this plan to alleviate the impact of haze on the general public.
There's speculation that some plantation companies who
may be benefitting from this slashing and burning of forests–directly or
not–are domiciled in Singapore. One of this companies, CTP Holdings, is
partly owned by Temasek Holdings, an investment company wholly owned by the
Singapore government; and the other is Wilmar International, which has the
current non-resident Ambassador and former Member of Parliament for 22 years,
Mr Leong Horn Kee, on its Board of Directors.
If this is true, the government of Singapore can exert
its influence on such companies to tackle the perennial haze problem. If
these companies give indications that they will only pay lip service to
tackling this problem, then the government should identify which are these
companies and, leading by example, encourage citizens who are shareholders in
such companies to dump their shares.
An academic report has alleged that Singapore plantation
companies are known to have several important current and former Indonesian government
officials and other prominent individuals ‘on the payroll’, and having such
patrons, managed to escape investigation and conviction of open burning
allegations.[ii]
If this is true, then it is about time Singapore considers
legislating a foreign corrupt practices act, which will, among other
provisions, make it unlawful for a Singapore citizens and Singapore-registered
businesses to be engaged in corrupt practices even when they are not within
Singapore's jurisdiction, and so, become liable for legal and enforcement
actions.
____________________________
Ravi Philemon is the executive director of a charitable
organisation, a community worker, a blogger, and a member of National
Solidarity Party.
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picture credit: from PM
Lee Hsien Loong's Facebook
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