Indonesia's oxygen remark deepens the regional haze dispute
BBC World Service's Asia Specific examines why smoke keeps crossing borders, and what leverage Singapore has over the businesses involved.
BBC World Service
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 87,407 views a day, 11 times a normal first day on this channel (7,927).
Why a comment about haze fired up Indonesia’s neighbours - Asia Specific podcast, BBC World Service
Things we can learn from the video
Press to jump
- 4:48Ajengrastri explains the backlash to officials suggesting neighbors should appreciate Indonesia's clean air outside haze season.
- 6:18Fickling explains how Indonesian palm oil and paper operations connect to companies headquartered or traded in Singapore.
- 9:24Fickling argues Singapore could demand supply-chain transparency, taking cues from European Union deforestation rules.
- 11:00Ajengrastri explains restrictions on slash-and-burn clearing, customary exemptions and the loophole involving proxy burning.
- 17:25Domestic calls for a national emergency declaration aim to mobilize more Indonesian state resources.
- 21:04Ajengrastri describes pessimism among Indonesians who have endured prolonged hazardous air without sufficient government action.
Neighbors should be grateful for the oxygen Indonesia's forests provide outside haze season. That was the message from an Indonesian government spokesman that sharpened an already tense regional dispute, as smoke from land-clearing fires spread beyond the country's borders.
On BBC World Service's Asia Specific, host Mariko Oi gets past the remark to a more consequential question: why has a problem that returns so predictably proved so difficult to stop?
Jakarta-based BBC journalist Astudestra Ajengrastri describes hazardous air in Kalimantan and public frustration over the government's response. The episode also reports temporary school closures in Malaysia and Brunei. For communities closest to the fires, this is not simply a diplomatic argument.
Bloomberg Opinion columnist David Fickling identifies a complication in the familiar demand that Indonesia act: palm oil and pulp-and-paper businesses operating there can have headquarters or financial ties in Singapore. He argues that Singapore could use those connections to demand more transparent supply chains, drawing a comparison with European Union deforestation rules.
Singapore has sent notices ordering companies it suspects are linked to the fires to help fight them. Those notices are not fines or findings of responsibility. The discussion distinguishes the power to demand action from the much harder task of holding businesses accountable.
The episode has passed 100,000 views, with an estimated first-day audience about eleven times the channel's usual start for comparable videos. Its central issue is less easily resolved: Ajengrastri describes Indonesians enduring prolonged smoke while waiting for concrete government action and enforcement.
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- Channel
- BBC World Service
- Subscribers
- 2,240,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 4,047,583
- Channel views, pace per day
- 573,302 (on a normal day: 537,739)
- Video published
- October 20, 2026
- Video views so far
- 103,899 (2 days online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 82,187
The numbers
The haze episode drew an unusually large first-day audience for BBC World Service's regular videos. Its comment section was also much busier than usual.
💡 Test your knowledge
From which city does Mariko Oi present this Asia Specific episode?
Oi signs off from Singapore at the end of the episode.