Jakarta. Singapore and Malaysia have not lodged any formal complaints against Indonesia over the haze problem, according to the Foreign Ministry, as Jakarta tries to tap into an ASEAN mechanism to clear the air amid growing fears among its neighbors.

Parts of the region are now grappling with haze coming from Indonesia’s forest fires, which have scorched at least 107,000 hectares of land. Despite the worsening cross-border pollution, Jakarta claimed that everything was well with the fellow ASEAN nations.

“We have not received anything so far,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vahd Nabyl A Mulachela told a press briefing on Thursday, when asked about Singaporean and Malaysian complaints.

Nabyl also went on to say that Jakarta is already pursuing “joint monitoring and information exchange” under the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. This is the decades-old pact dedicated to tackling haze problems, among others, by establishing a regional command center. Jakarta launched the center a few months ago.

“At home, we are also doing patrols, waterbombing, fire extinguishing, weather modifications, and some ongoing legal actions regardless of whether or not there are complaints by any foreign country,” Nabyl said.

Despite Jakarta’s claims, Singaporean preschools are preparing to move outdoor activities indoors if the air quality worsens, according to the state-owned Channel News Asia.

Bernama reported that several schools in Sarawak’s border town of Tebedu recently had to close following deteriorating air pollution.

Think-tank SIIA has already sounded the alarm about a severe transboundary haze affecting Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore for the rest of the year, which it attributed to El Niño, the climate phenomenon that tends to bring drier dry spells and fierce wildfires.

Senior economist Bhima Yudhistira has urged the Prabowo Subianto administration to quickly roll out incentives and boost budget allocations for El Niño and forest fire mitigation.

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