It will take some time to solve haze issue: PM Lee

SINGAPORE — Members of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) will cooperate to tackle the haze issue but it will take some time for the matter to be resolved, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.

Responding to questions from the audience at the inaugural DBS Asia Leadership Dialogue, he said: “I have no doubt that there will be a spirit of cooperation. But I think solving the haze issue will take a very long time.”

Two weeks ago, thick smog reaching hazardous levels blanketed Singapore and Malaysia due to slash-and-burn land clearing in Indonesia.

ASEAN Foreign Ministers convened last weekend to discuss the haze issue, but some had also questioned the effectiveness of the group in managing regional affairs.

While he noted that Indonesia would like the problem to be resolved — as “it would save (the authorities) a lot of international awkwardness”, Mr Lee pointed out that Indonesia is a huge country, with thousands of square kilometres of land being cleared illegally.

The authorities may be able to take guilty companies to task but it is not always easy to nab farmers committing these offences, he said.

Added Mr Lee: “It is a country where it is not easy for instructions from the centre to percolate down and reach every corner of the land, so I think that it is a problem which is going to continue.”

Nevertheless, he noted that the situation has improved and the skies have been mostly clear.

“So things can be done, (and) we do hope that the Indonesian authorities will make the effort and continue to minimise the burning and illegal clearing of land,” Mr Lee said.

NG JING YNG