JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto has turned to experts for solutions to prevent recurring forest and peatland fires and expressed his respect for science, after his recent tirade against some experts critical of his administration drew public backlash.
Prabowo held a discussion with 22 experts from various research institutions and universities on Thursday (Sept 24), during which he asked for their opinions on fire management in the fire-prone peatland areas across the country.
“Please advise me on the best steps we can take to prevent fires in forest areas, including forests with peatlands,” he said as seen in a recording of the meeting. He also asked whether peatlands can be used to grow crops.
Prabowo told the discussion that he had “the utmost respect for experts”, claiming that his public remarks were often twisted to make it seem otherwise.
One of the experts in the discussion, Indratmo Soekarno from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), recalled the work of Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM), which was dissolved by the government in April 2025. The water resource engineering expert said the agency’s blueprint for managing peatlands could provide lessons for the government.
Indonesia has over 13 million hectares of peatland, which can retain large amounts of water but become highly flammable when dried out. Peatland fires are difficult to extinguish because they can smoulder below the soil surface and spread underground.
The meeting concluded with Prabowo agreeing to experts’ recommendations to establish a new peatland and mangrove management agency, which will assume the roles of the BRGM, particularly in preventing fires and developing hotspot detection technology. The meeting came as Indonesia is struggling to contain wildfires across Kalimantan and Sumatra.
Environmentalists blame decades of peatland degradation and deliberate land clearing by burning for worsening the fires, while affected communities decry the government handling of the crisis.
On Sept. 17, indigenous and civil society groups in West Kalimantan sued Prabowo and his government, accusing them of deliberate negligence for failing to prevent and handle wildfires paralszing the province.
The President’s efforts to reach out to experts for their help in the handling of forest fires, however, was considered by Indonesian Academic Freedom Caucus (KIKA) member Herdiansyah Hamzah as little more than a gimmick.
Herdiansyah, a law expert from Samarinda-based Mulawarman University in East Kalimantan who did not attend the meeting with Prabowo, said the government had generally ignored scientific data and expertise in policymaking.
“Various data from environmental experts have long shown that peatland clearing is a major cause of land fires, which should have been something the Prabowo administration had addressed from the beginning,” Herdiansyah said on Saturday. He said the dissolution of BRGM reflected the government’s disregard for science.
Thursday’s consultation came less than a week after Prabowo’s latest remarks that mocked experts. Prabowo on Sept 18 accused unnamed experts of using their criticism to take down his policies and programmes, including his flagship free nutritious meal programme, saying these experts “are so smart that they become idiots”.
The remarks quickly provoked backlash from academics and the wider public. In March, Prabowo called unnamed observers “unpatriotic”, while in July, he accused journalists and analysts critical of his policies of serving foreign interests. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
