Opinion #4: A Crime Against Humanity?

Singapore has been grappling with its worst bout of transboundary haze pollution in recent years, with the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index rooted in the Unhealthy range for several days since 12th September 2015. The haze occurred despite Indonesia having submitted its Instrument of Ratification of the ASEAN Agreement onTransboundary Haze Pollution with ASEAN in January 2015 and Singapore implementing a local Transboundary Haze Pollution Act in 2014. Tourism in Singapore has suffered while school military activities have also been adjusted.

The haze, created by firms and farmers engaging in illegal slash-and-burn practices as inexpensive means to clear peat, has been particularly severe in 2015 due to the El Niñophenomenon.

Furthermore Factors like government development policies which encourage resource exploitation, the increase in global demand for pulp and palm oil, and weak forestry governance have resulted in very slow change in Indonesia. It was reported in 2013 that the forestry ministry had been resisting then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s attempts to set up a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) task force.

In 2007, Singapore and Indonesia formalised their collaboration to implement action programs in order to prevent and manage the fires in the Indonesian province of Jambi. Despite the limited success, data obtained from the Forestry and Environment Ministry in Jambi showed that the province had reduced the number of hot spots there by about 70 per cent since 2006. Activists and experts had attributed this to the greater awareness amongst residents of the detrimental effects of slash-and-burn farming to them and to their surroundings. In 2014, Singapore introduced theTransboundary Haze Pollution Act, which gave the government the power to prosecute any company found guilty of contributing to the haze with a fine of up to S$2million, however Singapore has reportedly had difficulty obtaining the list of companies from Indonesia. In recent days, Singapore had also offered assistance to Indonesia to combat forest fires. Indonesia had earlier accepted the Singapore Armed Forces’ offer to send C-130s for cloud seeding and Chinooks for large water buckets to douse fires, only to decline it later.

The current dilemmas are that The haze situation only accounts for a few weeks each year, whereas our long-standing relationship with Indonesia persists throughout. Singaporean politicians thus need to be mindful that taking excessively harsh actions –verbal or legal — against Indonesian companies and politicians could have repercussions on diplomatic ties long after the haze subsides.

Furthermore The haze originates from outside our boundaries and is brought here by the wind currents and therefore Singapore, as a small country, has only a few policy options, such as negotiation and diplomacy financial support, legal penalties (to punish guilty companies, if Indonesia reveals who the guilty parties are), or fire-fighting support (in the form of cloud-seeding or helicopter water-bucket operations) all of which have been pursued to no avail

The anti action lobby claim while Singapore may have a higher standard of living we shouldn’t prioritise our way of living to the way of life of our neighbours. The f practices of the farmers is the most effective way of preparing the land for better yields, and getting more from the land. This is a long-standing traditional farming method used by Indonesian farmers, key for their survival.

Personally, given that Haze is a very pressing issue and that legal actions could take years before everything is settled and by then damages caused may not be irreversible, I support the pro action lobby. Direct Economic Sanctions will make MNCs feel the dire situation at hand as their profit-driven thoughts are implicated by a sudden fall of revenue due to their actions. While these MNCs are just “middleman-ing” the process of getting products from the suppliers to the buyers, they should have an equal severity of punishment simply on the basis that they knew the full consequences of their actions.

The main problem at the moment is that the cost of land clearing by heavy equipment is approximate USD1,000 per hectare, the cost of land clearing by burning is USD100 per hectare, mostly paid in bribes and payments to local indigenous tribes who can claim they have a right to slash and burn agriculture as part of their heritage. Furthermore, simply buying products without palm oil won’t help isn’t enough. The downturn in the palm oil sector this year has caused plantation companies to look carefully at cost structures and therefore more burning is occurring.

At the moment, there is evidence that many of the wealthier Indonesian CEOs of plantations hold private wealth/assets in Singapore which allows room for the Singapore Government to take the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act to the next level. Although there are some legal complexities with charging private individuals for corporate actions, we already charge individuals for corruption even when the bribes are paid using corporate money, so this is already a precedent. I also think that CEOs and Board of Directors would take a much more active interest in avoiding forest fires if they knew that they could be held liable. The suitable way to calculate damages could be by costing the health care expenditure due to haze-related respiratory ailments and decrease in tourism revenue from late cancellations.