Rogue State.

It generally refers to: a state that does not respect other states in its international actions; and a state or nation acting outside of the accepted national or international norms and policies. It is not difficult to perceive Indonesia as such a state. A state that perpetrates a form of ‘eco-terrorism’ for the past 16 years (since 1994 when the region was first engulfed in smoke).

I will not mince words and call it the haze. This is not haze. It is smoke, pure and simple. It is smoke resulting from the deliberately burning of forests. It is smoke that resulted from the deliberate neglect and blatant indifference of the governmenet gahmen in Jakarta. A gahmen that has clearly lost its right to rule its provinces since it has done nothing much for them in return while sucking them dry of resources. For all intentions and purposes, Indonesia is a failed state.

View from my office – 22.10.2010

I do not make these allegations likely. It wasn’t too long ago Aceh was fighting for separation. It would have gone on if not for the tsunami in 2006. The reason is obvious. The Indonesia gahmen has been exploiting Aceh of its resources, while given them very little in return. One can also read about flash floods as a result of deforestation in Irian Jaya (killing at least 150 people), and the mud flow that went on seemingly perpetually in Sidoarjo. It makes one ask – Is the gahmen in Jakarta a gahmen for Indonesia, or just a Javanese gahmen extending its hegemony over the rest of the provinces?

Remember what the region (and in fact the rest of the world) did for them when the tsunami happened? Many of us donated money and the SAF and many charity organisations sent medical personnel. We did whatever we can to help them. Even the United States sent an aircraft carrier to the Indian ocean, staying just outside Indonesian waters (out of respect to the so-called sovereignty of this rogue state) while they airlift aid into Aceh. But what did Indonesia do when we choked in the smoke? Abso-fxxking-lutely N O T H I N G!!!

Except for talking cock (Singlish for saying a load of rubbish). Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has said that fighting the haze could not be done by Indonesia alone and stressed that it was a transnational problem, requiring the cooperation from countries in the region.

Read between the lines and this is nothing but blackmail. This is what it really mean:” I ain’t going to do nuts about it until well, you help us – i.e. give us money. And just what can you do about it while you choke in our smoke anyway? Muahahahah!”

It certainly reminds me of what the DDR (East Germany) did when it was failing. It was selling dissidents or those who were arrested for attempting to flee to the FDR (West Germany) for 50,000 Deutsch Marks each. It is really nothing more but political blackmail.

As if that isn’t enough, it has been said that certain Indonesian officials are actually defiant when confronted. They were said to have remarked that (in my words) – ‘Singapore shown no gratitude for the fresh air from Indonesian forests but complains loudly over just a few smoky days’; ‘Singaporean companies are also responsible for hiring locals to clear forest by burning’; and ‘There is no evidence that the smoke is caused by us. We have not seen any increase in hot spots.’ Unfortunately I have not been able to find the articles containing these statements to identify the specific Indonesian officials who made these comments, though I am sure many has read it on our evening Chinese tabloids, and I recalled references to these remarks by friends on social media platforms like Plurk. I wished someone runover them with ‘Optimus Prime’ when visibility is low and tell them: “There is no evidence I actually run over you”.

Eitherway. I have given up on our gahmen. Our gahmen did nothing but protest, and actually even offer to help. What H E L P?! I am not about to pay from our collective pockets unless the cost is charged to that good-for-nothing gahmen in Jakarta. Indonesia can try and posture and say it has done much to combat the problem, but it has yet to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution adopted since 2002! Says a lot about the honorless curs in Jakarta, doesn’t it? In fact, the very fact that it hasn’t even ratify this, gives us no basis to even sue them in an International court for damages.

It also points to the fact that ASEAN is nothing more than a talk shop. More talk even than NATO, even though we often equate NATO with No Action Talk Only. ASEAN has even turn into nothing more than a forum for Americans to execute its strategies in containing China in the South China Sea. Frankly, if there are many things that are the internal matters of each individual country and ASEAN shouldn’t interfere – such as what the junta in Myanmar did to its people – then territorial disputes between members of ASEAN with China are their own private matters too. Just why the sh*t is ASEAN dancing to the tune of the Americans and coerce China to terms, when it didn’t even have the moral courage and ability to make member gahmens abide by agreements they made?