The Indonesian government needs aircraft capable of carrying out water-bombing missions to help douse the forest fires that caused the haze in Malaysia.

The Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia, Herman Prayitno, even wants Malaysian companies with operations in Indonesia to contribute to the firefighting efforts by renting aircraft to carry out these missions and other related activities, said Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming.

“We were urged (by the ambassador) to ask Malaysian companies with operations in Indonesia to help contribute to the fire-extinguishing efforts by renting planes to carry out ‘water-bombing’ missions,” he said in a statement today, following a visit to the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He said the Bombardier CL 415 aircraft tasked by the Malaysian government to carry out these missions was being serviced.

Ong was among a delegation of DAP parliamentarians led by the party’s secretary-general Lim Guan Eng that visited the embassy.

“We were told that Indonesia requires assistance in the form of aircraft capable of carrying out ‘water-bombing’ missions over the affected areas and that the Bombardier plane which Malaysia sent to carry out these missions is now being serviced.

“We were also told that Indonesia had deployed 13,900 personnel from the army and police for fire-fighting activities,” Ong said.

Besides Ong and Lim, the others in the DAP delegation are Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim, Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi, Sandakan MP Stephen Wong, Tanjong MP Ng Wei Aik, and Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari.

Ong said the delegation handed a memorandum to the Indonesian ambassador urging the Indonesian government to seriously consider the offers from Malaysia and Singapore to provide technical assistance, equipment and professional firefighters to combat the blaze.

Still burning

The memorandum also urged Indonesia to expedite the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Malaysian government on detailed cooperation mechanisms to tackle the haze problem, which had been postponed twice since November last year.

Following the visit, however, Ong said the delegation was told that the MOU only dealt with the Riau province in Sumatra.

It does not deal with other parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

This year’s haze in Malaysia started in early September, with the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) sounding the alarm on Sumatra on Sept 2, and Kalimantan on Sept 9, due to dry weather and the high number of hotspots detected via satellite.

The haze had worsened in recent weeks, with the Air Pollutant Index soaring as high as 300 in some instances, causing schools to close and disrupting airport flights.

As of 4pm today, however, the haze appears to have subsided, with all areas registering ‘moderate’ or ‘good’ air quality.

Nevertheless, the fires are still burning.

According to ASMC’s website, satellites have counted 110 hotspots in Kalimantan yesterday.

Possibly due to cloud cover, however, the satellites did not detect any hotspots in Sumatra. The count for Sumatra was 112 last week.