Daily Lessons from Life 20 June 2013 - Singapore and Indonesian officials discuss haze situation

"AsiaOne Jun 20, 2013 - Singapore and Indonesian officials discuss haze situation Singapore representatives met with Indonesian officials today in Jakarta to discuss the severe haze situation at an urgent meeting in Jakarta this afternoon. The meeting was arranged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia and involved senior Indonesian officials. The Singapore delegation, led by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Environment Agency (NEA), Mr Andrew Tan, expressed Singapore's serious concerns over the severe haze situation to Mr Yuri Thamrin, Director General for Asia-Pacific and African Affairs of Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who chaired the meeting. Singapore also stressed that haze remains a transboundary problem that affects not only Indonesia but regional countries. Indonesia assured Singapore that it would give the issue greater attention. At the meeting, Indonesia briefed Singapore of its plans to increase their capacity to deal with the fires and to get their agencies to report twice a day to a national task force chaired by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Agung Laksono. Indonesia also intends to step up its law enforcement on the ground by sending investigators to Bengkalis to clamp down on errant plantation companies. Singapore noted the ongoing measures and urged the authorities to step up their efforts. It was emphasised that it would be better if Indonesia reveal all the companies involved in such errant acts regardless of whether they are registered in Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore so that they can all be brought to task. The haze is after all a transnational issue. Singapore also requested Indonesia to ratify the ASEAN Transboundary Haze Agreement which Indonesia signed in 2002. Indonesia informed Singapore that they would be seeking their parliament's approval on this. Singapore reiterated its commitment to work with Indonesia at both bilateral and regional levels to tackle the haze. Singapore stands ready to collaborate at the provincial level as agreed at the Leaders Retreat in April this year. Speaking after the meeting, CEO of NEA said, "We had a frank and useful exchange of views where we conveyed the deep concerns of the public over the deteriorating haze situation. Both sides recognised that the situation was serious and needed urgent attention." Lessons for me are: 1. The signed Asean Transboundary Haze Agreement of 2002 was NOT ratify. What sloppy work by Asean and the country(ies) involved!; 2. There were some discussion or whatever in April 2013 at the Leaders Retreat. I wondered what was agreed and whatever happened to the retreat. Or as 'retreat' suggests; to have fun and spend some serious taxpayers' money by those involved? LOL!!; 3. It is comforting to learn that 'the meeting/exchange was a frank and useful one' and that 'the haze situation was recognised by BOTH SIDES as a serious and urgent one'. It is never complete when we have not turned 'words into actions'. Like someone said: 'Vision with no action changes nothing' while 'Vision with Actions change the World'! The world, at least the 5.5m inhabitants of Singapore, is waiting for the real change. Will it? Just ratify the agreement and starts implementing whatever that had been agreed by ALL involved. As simple as '123' and 'abc'. Can do? :-)