Toxic Haze Blanketing Southeast Asia Sparks Student Protests in Indonesia

Thousands of students across Indonesia have protested for days over the government’s response to toxic haze that has blanketed multiple cities and spread across Southeast Asia in recent weeks. The haze has triggered health concerns and ignited public backlash from Singapore, Malaysia, and other nations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

On Friday, more than 500 protesters gathered outside the Central Kalimantan Governor’s Office in Palangkaraya, demanding solutions. Some held signs reading “haze emergency” and “If we burn, you burn with us!” Protests have spread to more than half a dozen Indonesian cities this week, including on the island of Borneo, where many of the fires are burning.

Indonesia’s haze is primarily caused by forest and peatland fires, often started to clear land for farming. While such fires are common during the dry season, which usually begins in April, this year’s have been particularly severe. Student and civil society groups have demanded stronger action for months, with some calling for President Prabowo Subianto to declare a national emergency and take more aggressive steps to prevent agricultural practices blamed for fueling the blazes. Some student-led protests have merged with ongoing demonstrations over Indonesia’s struggling economy.

Many demonstrators wore thick masks to protect themselves from the air pollution blanketing Palangkaraya, which was tinged orange by the haze. Volunteer firefighters extinguishing blazes around Palangkaraya expressed hope for rain. According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Health, more than 333,470 residents across seven affected provinces have suffered acute respiratory illnesses since mid-August.

“We want the government to openly declare a national disaster emergency,” said Vincent Thomas, a student at Indonesia’s Universitas Padjadjaran, who joined protests in Bandung. “Not just regarding Kalimantan, but regarding forest fires across the entire country, in every part of Indonesia.”

Jemilah Mahmood, executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Kuala Lumpur, noted that the haze is a consequence of a changing climate meeting damaged environments. “The lungs of a child in Pontianak or Johor Bahru depend on the health of a peat swamp hundreds of kilometers away,” she said.

Experts attribute the current severity of Indonesia's forests being a tinderbox to less rainfall during the wet season, extreme heat, climate change, and an intensifying El Niño, potentially the strongest in living memory. “The current haze crisis is a real symptom, a real example of how climate change affects our day-to-day lives,” said Syahdiva Moezbar, with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Jakarta.

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur have been ranked among the most polluted cities globally this month by the platform IQAir, with many considering this the worst haze crisis to affect the region in over a decade. Singaporean officials have warned that the country’s air quality may deteriorate further and are taking legal action against seven companies in Indonesia that Singapore blames for causing the fires.

“For me, the part that does worry me is just the difficulty in getting N95 masks and air purifiers,” said Qiyun Woo, a Singaporean environmentalist. “You just can’t help but worry about your own health, especially when you might not have an air purifier.”

The haze has closed schools in East Timor and been detected in the Philippines. Slash-and-burn agricultural practices are common across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, with burning seasons typically running from January to April. Regional efforts to tackle the issue have lagged.

“Crises like this test relationships, and the rhetoric this season has been unhelpful on all sides,” Mahmood said. “My worry is not a permanent rupture. It is that blame becomes a habit and gets in the way of the cooperation we need.”