据《雅加达邮报》10月27日报道，目前土地和森林火灾已在印尼引起全国性的烟尘污染问题，众议院领导人呼吁成立委员会研究处理土地和森林火灾的国家举措。

House of Representatives leaders have called for the establishment of a Pansus (committee) to inquire into the nation’s handling of land and forest fires, which have caused serious smoke problems currently affecting areas across Indonesia.

House deputy speaker Agus Hermanto said the Pansus was needed because from the start the government had not been serious in their efforts to handle the land and forest fires.

Agus said the House’s Commission IV overseeing agriculture, food, forestry, plantations, fisheries and maritime affairs had established a Panja (working committee) on environment to monitor the handling of land and forest fires. However, only the Forestry and Environment Ministry had taken progressive moves to follow up the committee’s recommendations.

Agus said ministries and non-ministry government institutions only started to handle the fires properly after they were mobilized by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. Several ministers then moved to areas affected by the smoke disaster.

“It’s too late. It should have been handled seriously from the very beginning. With a Pansus, we can better handle land and forest fire problems,” said Agus as quoted by kompas.com at the House complex in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The lawmaker said that compared to a Panja, a Pansus would apply stronger pressure on the government. With a Pansus, he said, the House could summon companies suspected of involvement in land and forest fires. “It’s needed to investigate land and forest burning, to help the government to resolve [the issue] and make recommendations to law enforcers,” said the Democratic Party lawmaker.

Commission IV speaker Edhy Prabowo said earlier that his commission was preparing a Pansus to inquire into the current smoke disaster. Internally, he said, all Commission IV members had agreed the establishment of the Pansus, which would be soon introduced to other related commissions.

Responding the proposal, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said he was worried that the establishment of a Pansus would consume too much Cabinet-member time, while according to him, ministers already had a lot of tasks to do related to the disaster.

“If [House members] just want to ask about how the government is handling the disaster, they should go ahead. But please don’t do it too much because [the ministers] will end up spending all their time answering House questions,” Kalla said on Monday.

“If [House members] just want to ask about how the government is handling the disaster, they should go ahead. But please don’t do it too much because [the ministers] will end up spending all their time answering House questions,” Kalla said on Monday.