SE Asia's Worst Pollution in 16 Years Enters Stage of Blaming and Shaming

Singapore is breathing easier these days after a choking blanket of smoke produced by fires in Indonesia has diminished from record-setting levels last week, but the incident has prompted the World Wildlife Fund to make renewed calls for "zero-burn" policies to be enacted and enforced, as blame is being passed around the trio of Southeast Asian neighbors.

According to the WWF, more than 9,000 fire points were mapped in Sumatra by NASA satellites between June 1 and June 24, with more than 88 percent of them in a single Indonesian jurisdiction called Riau.

 Nearly 40 percent of the hotspots overlapped with large-scale palm oil plantation or pulp wood concessions. The fires, fueled by deposits of peat on the ground, are capable of burning for weeks and emitting huge amounts of carbon.

"With this data in hand, WWF stands ready to help governments and agencies across the region", said Elaine Tan, CEO of WWF-Singapore. "Fires in Riau are a global issue that affects us all due to serious carbon emissions they cause."

Thursday Singapore's foreign minister K Shanmugam said his government has asked Indonesia to identify the companies involved in the slash-and-burn fires that are the source of the smoky haze, which caused schools to close out of concern of public health and pollution index levels in Singapore and Malaysia to reach record highs.

According to Reuters at least eight Southeast Asian companies are being investigated for their role in the fires. At least five plantation owners implicated in the worst case of air pollution the region has seen in 16 years have denied any wrongdoing, Reuters reported.

Three of the firms under investigation are owned by government-linked companies in Malaysia, according to Reuters. However, unlike Singapore, Malaysia has not publicly admonished Indonesia over the smog. The BBC reports that some Singapore-based firms are allegedly linked to the plantation burning, though many of them have refuted the claims.

Indonesia has tried to shift some of the blame from itself.

"Let me remind our friends from Malaysia, Singapore, don't just because of the haze, tell stories to the world," Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said, according to the Malaysia Insider.

"It's called sharing, you go through good times together, don't make noise to the world when things go bad. It's just like husband and wife, don't take your quarrel outside," he added, according to a Straits Times report.