Indonesia opens its skies to Malaysian rainmakers as haze crisis deepens

Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to share the skies amid a haze crisis that has closed nearly 600 Malaysian schools and erased much of the Kuala Lumpur skyline from view. The Petronas Twin Towers, usually visible for miles around, have been swallowed by a grey shroud as wildfires that continue to rage across Indonesia’s Sumatra and Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Authorities from both countries are coordinating operations along their shared Bornean border, with Malaysia’s environment minister confirming that Jakarta has granted permission for joint cloud-seeding operations to tackle the worsening transboundary haze. Malaysia’s national disaster management agency and its meteorological department are scheduling work in border areas, with operations to be coordinated by the Indonesian military. Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Arthur Joseph Kurup said in a statement on Monday that 16 areas in Malaysia had recorded unhealthy air pollutant index (API) readings as of 10am on August 26. He warned that the El Nino weather phenomenon was expected to intensify by October, coinciding with the southwest monsoon, adding that both nations had pledged to step up preventive measures and early firefighting efforts. “Malaysia stands ready to extend assistance to the Republic of Indonesia at any time, should it be required for immediate firefighting efforts,” Kurup said. In Malaysia, API readings between 0 and 50 indicate good air quality, 51 to 100 moderate, 101 to 200 unhealthy, 201 to 300 very unhealthy and above 300 is classed as hazardous. Three locations in Sarawak state had logged API levels above 160 as of Wednesday. In Peninsular Malaysia, Negeri Sembilan state reached 162, Kuala Lumpur and Cheras recorded 159, and Putrajaya registered 158. Another 52 areas remained at moderate levels, with only Kangar in Perlis and the Langkawi archipelago in Kedah recording good air quality. On Friday, nearly 600 schools in Sarawak were forced to close as pollution reached “very unhealthy” levels, affecting almost 200,000 pupils. View on Threads Malaysians took to social media to vent their frustration, posting side-by-side photos comparing clear views of the capital’s landmarks with the smog-choked skyline, while urging employers to reinstate work-from-home arrangements from the pandemic era. “It’s OK to allow work from home and online classes for a while instead of forcing people to inhale haze,” one person wrote. Others complained of sore throats and other illnesses caused by the smog. “The Twin Towers are gone from my view, and my throat hurts,” another user wrote. Indonesia has been battling severe wildfires across multiple provinces since earlier this month. Dozens of people suspected of starting some of the blazes have been arrested. Prabowo’s promised crackdown Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has vowed firm action against corporate offenders found responsible for the fires. “We will go after them if they are proven guilty. We will penalise them according to the law,” he told reporters in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan. The president flew to West and Central Kalimantan on Saturday to assess the destruction and coordinate emergency responses. Indonesian forest ministry data shows more than 2,000 square km (770 square miles) of land burned between January and July, with nearly 950 square km (366 square miles) affected in last month alone. Six provinces – including Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra and parts of Kalimantan on Borneo – have been designated priority zones for emergency response, with fires also breaking out in Java, Papua and Nusa Tenggara. Thousands of personnel, water-bombing helicopters and cloud-seeding aircraft have been deployed nationwide. Indonesian police have named 72 arson suspects, 14 of them in Kalimantan, and four companies in West Kalimantan are now under investigation over land burning. Under Indonesian laws passed in 1999 and 2009, deliberate burning carries penalties of up to 10 years in prison and heavy fines. Regional climate experts argue that Asean’s consensus-based approach continues to limit the effectiveness of regional responses, despite the bloc adopting a legally binding transboundary haze agreement two decades ago. The Association of Southeast Nations signed the Asean agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 and it came into force a year later, but Indonesia – the main source of regional smog – did not ratify the pact until 2014. “Haze does not respect national borders, and neither should our response,” said Renard Siew, a climate change adviser at the Malaysia-based Centre for Governance and Political Studies, welcoming the cross-border move. While cloud seeding could help induce rainfall under the right atmospheric conditions, Siew said it could not replace fire prevention at the source. “Prevention must become the priority rather than responding only when the haze has already crossed borders,” he said, urging Asean to leverage the transboundary agreement signed more than two decades ago.