Smoke-haze and Forest Fire in Kalimantan: How is the Reform regime responses?

¹ Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia
² Center for Asian Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia
³ Department of Agrotechnology, Faculty of Animal and Agriculture, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: wulan@live.undip.ac.id

Abstract

This article examines the government’s response during the Reformation period to smog haze, which often interferes with the visibility of air and sea traffic in Southeast Asia. In the history of forest fires in Indonesia, transboundary haze pollution has strong roots in the New Order regime, namely in 1982-1983 and 1997-1998. The New Order government at that time gave significant oil palm plantation concessions to domestic and foreign investors. This concession allowed the expansion of capitalism to occur on a massive scale, resulting in severe environmental degradation in Kalimantan. The smog haze has become a serious problem that gets considerable attention from international actors because it has the potential to cross national borders. To elaborate on this problem, this study answers the research question of how the reform regime after the New Order responded to forest fires in Kalimantan? In September 2014, the government ratified the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) as a political commitment that must be carried out together as ASEAN member countries, as well as the moral responsibility of the Indonesian government as the holder of the most extensive forest in the world.