Ahead of Indonesia’s 81st Independence Day celebrations on 17 August 2026, rain fell over Pontianak. It swept across the burnt land, thinning the dense haze.
Now, the plumes of smoke left by forest and land fires are beginning to recede, although a faint smell still lingers. Yet the memory remains.
About a week earlier, a circular from the local government instructing schools to adjust students’ learning arrangements due to the haze appeared in parents’ communication channels and was also circulated in the media.
Face-to-face classes at schools were moved online.
Thirty years ago, I experienced the same conditions when I was at primary school. It is hard to believe that, in 2026, schoolchildren in Pontianak are still affected by forest and land fires and haze.
If feeding schoolchildren is indeed so urgent, what is the point if the children who will eat the meals are themselves unwell because their breathing has been impaired?
Should the government not also give greater priority to this annual problem of forest and land fires and haze? It could, for example, be more flexible in its budgeting or even give the issue greater priority during the remainder of the Prabowo-Gibran administration.
Ironically, Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) currently has an annual disaster mitigation and prevention budget of only 17-19 billion.
By mid-August, BNPB had to grapple not only with forest and land fires and haze but also with three major earthquakes in NTT, North Sumatra, and Central Sulawesi.
In August alone, the Pontianak Post daily published three opinion pieces on forest and land fires and haze.
The first, published on 3 August 2026 and entitled Karhutla: Bencana Tahunan yang Tak Pernah Tuntas (Forest and Land Fires: The Annual Disaster That Never Ends), invited us to contemplate the disaster from a religious perspective and to reflect on humanity’s role as a steward of God’s creation.
Two weeks later, on 12 and 13 August 2026, respectively, two more articles addressed the same problem from different perspectives.
The article Merdeka dari Asap (Freedom from Haze) examined how education has been affected by recurring haze, while Kita Belum Belajar dari Api (We Have Not Yet Learnt from Fire) captured the author’s anxiety over fires on peatland that should have been anticipated and learnt from.
One thread runs through the authors’ various concerns: every year, the people of West Kalimantan still celebrate Indonesia’s independence with great fanfare, only to be greeted by an equally festive haze.
My article will join the ‘festivities’ of West Kalimantan’s haze month by focusing on stronger cross-border cooperation between West Kalimantan and Sarawak in responding to forest and land fires and haze.
There are two reasons why this topic is important and deserves attention: (1) both regions are burning and experiencing the effects of haze; and (2) the spirit of the ASEAN Community provides a forum for cross-sectoral cooperation and more effective regional integration.
First, haze and deteriorating air quality are not confined to West Kalimantan. Several cities in Sarawak have experienced the same conditions, forcing schools to close.
Moreover, in late July 2026, the West Kalimantan Provincial Government had just successfully hosted the Malaysia-Indonesia Socio-Economic Cooperation Forum (Sosek Malindo) in Pontianak.
A trace of haze was already visible at the time, but who could have imagined that, several weeks after the series of meetings, the land fires and their smoke would spread further?
Several media outlets, politicians and officials in Sarawak and Malaysia blamed poor air quality in their areas on haze exported from Indonesia. Yet local Sarawak media reports must also be considered: fire hotspots and land fires were present there as well.
There were approximately 22 hotspots, with around 100 hectares of land burnt. This was certainly not comparable to the 1,483 hotspots recorded within 24 hours on 10 August 2026, or the total of 28,680.47 hectares burnt in West Kalimantan since January 2026.
Second, since 2003, forest and land fires and haze have been an important issue at the Southeast Asian level.
ASEAN member states have agreed to a treaty on transboundary haze, although in practice ASEAN repeatedly runs up against the principle of non-interference because the issue is often treated as a state’s domestic matter.
Other member states cannot intervene in the internal affairs of another ASEAN member state. Yet again, the haze shows that it knows no national borders and cares nothing for niceties about state sovereignty.
Haze moves with the wind.
This also means that states need to reconsider the concept of borders in dealing with haze. Encouraging stronger cross-border cooperation would certainly be far more effective than closing themselves off and becoming defensive.
The relationship between these two serumpun (kindred) countries and regions should not deteriorate because of haze.
Instead of each side busily making accusations while the other defends itself, should we not seek a solution together? Do we not always extol the rhetoric of kindred nations, also bound by ties of kinship in Kalimantan?
Working Together for a Haze-Free Kalimantan
In line with Martinez’s (1994) typology of integrated border regions, this transboundary haze problem can provide momentum for strengthening relations between the two bordering regions.
Through the issue of forest and land fires and haze, the two subnational actors - the West Kalimantan Provincial Government and the Sarawak State Government - share the same interest: an environment free from damage.
If this common interest is aligned with each side’s perceptions of the other, cooperation is highly possible, according to constructivist thinkers in International Relations.
Moreover, West Kalimantan and Sarawak already have cooperation frameworks, ranging from Sosek Malindo and the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) to bilateral relations between the West Kalimantan Provincial Government and the Sarawak Government.
The close ties forged over the past five years during the tenure of Mr Azizul Zekri, Malaysia’s Consul in Pontianak, demonstrate that relations between the two nation-states at the subnational level are very good.
His active role in opening relations between the two countries and regions deserves to be continued. He concluded his assignment by attending Sosek Malindo 2026 in Pontianak at the end of July.
His initiatives, which also helped reopen air routes connecting West Kalimantan with Kuala Lumpur and Kuching, offer another example of how relations between West Kalimantan and Sarawak - and Malaysia more broadly - need not be limited to mutual accusations over haze.
This creates the possibility of pursuing more serious cooperation between local governments through paradiplomacy. It should not be limited to exchanging visits; West Kalimantan and Sarawak should also be able to solve problems together.
The local governments in West Kalimantan and Sarawak could begin by sitting down together to continue construtive discussions, building on the most recent Sosek Malindo.
They could exchange ideas and the best solutions used in each region. They could talk in order to listen to one another and share experiences.
The arrangements set out in the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution could also be more fully utilised and implemented at the local level.
Through paradiplomacy, the two sides could also establish a joint early warning system.
Another distinctive initiative would be public education on each side’s best practices through books, posters and collaborative videos in the various languages spoken in West Kalimantan and Sarawak.
The governments of both regions could also involve communities and highly active online influencers, so that public outreach can reach more people.
The solution must not be limited to the present; it must address how the two neighbouring regions can drastically reduce land fires and haze from year to year.
It is important not only to implement prevention measures as the dry season approaches, but also to make long-term investments.
One example would be to include forest and land fire disasters in the education curriculum.
Rather than being preoccupied with repackaging printed books, it would be better to deepen schoolchildren’s understanding of the dangers of land fires, including the danger of burning rubbish in their yards.
Furthermore, in studies of border education, some researchers’ proposals have already moved towards designing curricula that accommodate the daily lives of border communities whose interactions cross boundaries.
Such curricula should not be limited to a national curriculum focused only on knowing one’s own country.
Transboundary haze could provide an entry point for both local governments to introduce West Kalimantan to students in Sarawak and vice versa, using a more constructive narrative.
Another example is the need to connect the local wisdom of farmers who clear agricultural land through controlled burning with formal education.
Although legislation and local regulations are already in place in West Kalimantan, this distinctive practice needs further study, particularly the customary procedures through which local communities understand nature before clearing agricultural land by burning it.
I still remember several farmers in a border village telling me about their knowledge of how to read the wind direction, construct boundary ditches, decide where to start a fire, and extinguish it.
This local knowledge must be documented through research so that it is not only passed down orally from generation to generation but also becomes learning material that helps students understand how their ancestors learned from nature.
Academics at universities can act, too, alongside governments.
International collaboration between universities in West Kalimantan and Sarawak has long existed, including through the Borneo Studies Network (BSN).
This can be valuable capital for supporting bilateral relations between the two regions, particularly by maximising the potential of research and innovation to tackle forest and land fires and haze.
One such institution is Universitas Tanjungpura (UNTAN), which has now made tropical research one of its focus areas and should therefore become more involved by fully leveraging the research potential across its nine faculties.
The strategic position of the Rector of Universitas Tanjungpura, who previously served as Chair of the Indonesian Rectors Forum for the 2025-2026 term, could also serve as a bridge to attract opportunities for university collaboration at the national level and even beyond Southeast Asia, to conduct research and seek interdisciplinary, research-based solutions.
Alongside UNTAN, other universities in West Kalimantan could also work hard to devise innovative solutions to this issue.
This would ensure that the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology’s BERDAMPAK slogan is not simply pasted on noticeboards.
This message is also a form of self-criticism for us, as academics at universities, so that we can help keep West Kalimantan and Sarawak free from forest and land fires and haze.
Synergy between researchers and policymakers is crucial to mainstreaming research-based policy, rather than policy based on speeches, the wishes of a particular leader during a given term, or even virality.
Indonesia and Malaysia, particularly West Kalimantan and Sarawak, also have a history of other forms of cross-border cooperation, such as the Heart of Borneo initiative.
Moreover, at the border, people of different nationalities proudly embrace those on the other side as family.
These institutional and emotional bonds between West Kalimantan and Sarawak are valuable assets for resolving the problems they face together.
This is not the time to point fingers, but to move together to solve the problem.
These harmonious relations could also accelerate development in western Kalimantan and balance development in Nusantara, in eastern Kalimantan.
This means that all parties share the same spirit of protecting and developing Kalimantan as a common home for people from different groups across three countries.
This positive example could be one practical expression of the ASEAN Community spirit.
Its success could then demonstrate to other Southeast Asian member states that West Kalimantan and Sarawak can resolve their long-running haze problem together.
May the harmonious relations between West Kalimantan and Sarawak continue to flourish!
May the people of West Kalimantan and Sarawak celebrate Independence Day next year with better air quality!
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Adityo Darmawan Sudagung is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at Universitas Tanjungpura. Since October 2021, he has been pursuing his PhD in Development Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, with a focus on border studies, Southeast Asian studies, and belonging, following the completion of his bachelor’s degree (2013) and master’s degree (2015) in International Relations from Universitas Padjadjaran. In 2023, Sudagung was honoured by Indonesia’s National Agency of Border Management as the first winner of a writing contest. His research interests revolve around International Relations from a people-centred perspective with an interdisciplinary approach. His latest publication (2025) is entitled “Education and teacher careers at the Indonesia-Malaysia border: an ethnography study”.
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Disclaimer: The Bahasa Indonesia version of this opinion was published earlier in the Pontianak Post on Saturday (22/08) under the title "Mengakhiri Drama Karhutla dan Kabut Asap di Kalimantan Barat dan Sarawak"; the online article can be viewed here. The English version was drafted by The Southeast Asia Desk, with ChatGPT and Grammarly.
(QOB)