President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered all relevant ministers and the officials in Riau province to handle the ubiquitous land and forest fires with every possible way.
“Again, I instructed the relevant ministers and the officials in Riau province on Thursday night to immediately perform emergency response operation,” the president wrote on his Twitter account @SBYudhoyono on Friday.
He added that the officials in Riau should stand in the front line to prevent and handle the smoke caused by the forest and plantation fires in the province.
“If in two days the relevant ministers and Riau provincial government officials fail to handle the problem, I will take it over,” the head of state noted.
He said that the police have named 37 suspects and would bring them to court, but if the fires continue to happen, the suffocating haze would be inevitable.
“The central government, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the National Defense Forces (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) have actually tried to overcome the smoke but the result was still not satisfactory,” he said.
The president then asserted that it was necessary to build common responsibility and awareness to stop setting the forest fires arbitrarily.
