TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - It has been a busy fortnight for Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar for no other reason than the seasonal emergence of forest fires. This year, the ministry has had to deal with an even more problematic agenda. Two incidents occurred that complicated an already sensitive situation: the hostage-taking of environmental ministry officials as they investigated a burned site owned by Andika Permata Sawit Lestari (APSL) at Rokan Hulu, and the discovery of a peatland area suspected to be newly cleared by Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) on Pulau Padang at Merbau Subdistrict, Meranti Regency.

At the same time, Nurbaya, 60, was censured by President Joko Widodo who was in China attending the G20 summit: She had to immediately settle the problem of the forest fires. At the time, smoke had already begun to cover Riau and creep across the Malacca Strait to Singapore. Ministry officials were taken hostage when they were in the process of putting up signs banning further use of the scorched forested areas within the APSL area. They were surrounded by a crowd who threatened to kill them. The people forced the officials to erase all photographs and video recordings and uproot the signs placed by the environment and forestry ministry. The hostages were only released at 2:30am the following day, following negotiations by the police. Luckily, the recordings of the scorched lands, taken by an overhead drone, escaped destruction.

Nurbaya regards the incident as a blessing in disguise. She now has a clear explanation for the serious haze problem that engulfed Singapore on August 25, 2016. "From August 23 to 28, there were 164 hotspots in Riau. Compare that with 688 hotspots from last January to August," she told Tempo reporters Martha Warta Silaban, Abdul Manan, Tika Pramandari, Mitra Tarigan and Reza Maulana in an interview last week. Nurbaya, who was once secretary-general of the Regional Representative Council (DPD), gave the interview at her office in Central Jakarta.

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How did the hostage-taking incident take place?

On August 27, I was in South Kalimantan inspecting the implementation of the people's forest garden project, I received a call from the President's aide. He said Bapak (the President) was furious. "Why is there still haze? Are there big fires going on? Who is doing it? Aren't the regulations being applied? What about law enforcement?" One day before that, I told our director-general that the standard air pollution index in Riau had reached 90 (51-100 is medium level pollution while 101-199 is not good for the health-Ed.). I cautioned him, very carefully, that hotspots at Rokan Hulu and Rokan Hilir in Riau had begun to rise. On the morning of August 28, I received reports that the air (over Riau) had solidified. Nothing was visible. I also read in the news that people had gone to seek refuge (from the haze) at Bonai, Rokan Hulu. I was puzzled. For as long as I can remember, no forest fires had forced people to flee. At midnight, I asked the director-general in charge of law enforcement, Rasio Ridho Sani, to go and inspect the refugee areas.

What did the report say?

Pak Roy (as Rasio Ridho is called) said the forest fires were big and the smoke was very thick. No one could see anything. So I instructed him to proceed with the legal process, like setting up warning signs, delineating borders and such things. On Friday, afternoon of September 2, a senior advisor informed me that five forest policemen and two investigators from the ministry had been taken hostage in an area controlled by APSL. I could not imagine what it was like. The mob was armed with long-barreled weapons. I hoped that none of those weapons went off. I also asked Roy to report the incident to the commander of a military unit assigned to monitor forest fires there. On Saturday, I got the whole sordid details. I don't know why it has come to this.

The mob stated they were members of the farmers community. Did the ministry suspect they were being used by companies to torch the land?

(Minister Nurbaya asked Rasio Ridho to respond-Ed.)

Rasio: On Tuesday, September 30, we came to a tent filled with dozens of refugees. Before, their numbers had reached about 600 and some of them claimed to be employees of APSL, that their homes had burned down. When I later went deeper into the burned oil-palm forests, the people trying to douse out the fires also said they were employees of APSL. During the hostage-taking, they were the people who demanded that photographs be deleted, that signs be pulled out and so forth. The conclusion was that all those people were company employees.

Why did you immediately ban usage of the lands?

I wanted this problem to be resolved quickly. First, because the smoke had thickened and assumed to have gone on the Singapore, although only for a few hours. Secondly, there were refugees there. (If anything went wrong,) Indonesia could be seen negatively by the outside world. I was also asked by the director-general to analyze the situation in Riau and Singapore on the periods between August 23 and 29 this year. During that time, there were 164 hotspots in Riau. Compare that with 668 hotspots over there from January to August. So, 24 percent of the haze actually came from that (period). So the problem this year involves not only forest degradation, forest fires but also hostage-taking.

 

Did you discuss the hostage-taking with the President?

Not specifically. I was just asked to solve the forest fire problem. When it happened, the President was in China. But the media was full of reports about the differences between the environment ministry and the police. Well, I was told by the President's people not to confuse the public further. I said that the differences were not about legal authority, but about interpretation and assumptions. Yesterday (Wednesday September 7), we agreed with National Police chief Tito Karnavian that there should no longer be estimates, assumptions and analyses in handling forest and land fires.

Who initiated the meeting between the ministry and the police?

(Nurbaya just smiled.)

Some people linked your orders to investigate Andika Permata with the circulation of photographs showing Riau police officers with Andika executives? Is that true?

No connection whatsoever. I gave the assignment on August 28; those pictures only began circulating on August 31. Meanwhile, the hostages were taken on the evening of September 2. So, it was just coincidence.

What lessons have you learned on how to manage forest fires so far?

I figure out that such methods of land management have become the usual method, that partnership and cooperation helps the people. In 2014, we held a dialogue with the detainees at a local police precinct. I can't remember whether it was in Dumai, Rokan Hulu or Rokan Hilir. That man in jail was a farmer. He admitted to having been ordered to set fire to some forests, yet the person who ordered him to do it is still at large.