Eurasia Review
09 October 2015
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Clearing the Diplomatic Haze: Indonesia’s Tense Ties with Singapore and Malaysia – Analysis
Clearing the Diplomatic Haze: Indonesia’s Tense Ties with Singapore and Malaysia – Analysis
The recent haze has engulfed parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The worsening air quality, along with trenchant statements by Indonesian officials, has been causing tensions among the three countries.
Whenever the haze is back, it is usually followed by an intense blame game, matched by state officials marching to high-level talks to find yet another mechanism to address the problem. As soon as the sky clears up and the dust settles, commitments made during the meetings quickly evaporate.
For the past 18 years, haze from forest fires has been an annual problem in Indonesia, which has been rooted in the slash-and-burn method used by companies to clear large chunks of land to make space for plantations. The worsening air quality due to the haze, along with provocative statements made by Indonesian officials, has been causing tensions among the three countries.
… Tiola Javadi is a Research Associate with the Indonesia Programme and David Han, a Research Analyst with the Malaysia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. This is part of a new RSIS series on the regional haze issue.
IDSS / ICPVTR / Online
