Indonesian anger builds over wildfires, toxic haze

Demonstrators hold placards in a protest against the government's handling of wildfires and calling for an end to corruption, collusion and nepotism, marking two years of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka's administration, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Oct 20, 2026. - Photo: Reuters

JAKARTA: Indonesians protested in several cities on Tuesday (Oct 20), raging against wildfires and a toxic haze that has made thousands unwell for weeks on end in a crisis that has engulfed Southeast Asia.

Demonstrations were called by students to display dissatisfaction with the government of President Prabowo Subianto, which marked its second year on Tuesday.

They railed against perceived ineptitude and corruption during protests in the capital Jakarta, but also in Bandung and Yogyakarta elsewhere on Java island, as well as Pekanbaru in Sumatra and Makassar in South Sulawesi.

Many pointed particularly to an inability to put out the fires that have ravaged vast swaths of Borneo and Sumatra islands since July.

"If we burn, you burn with us!" read a protest banner held up by a demonstrator in Jakarta.

"I have the right to breathe. Extinguish the fires immediately," said another.

Residents in the city of Palangkaraya, on Borneo, told AFP of their despair.

University students take part in a protest demanding the Indonesian government to accelerate post-flood reconstruction nearly a year after flash floods devastated the region, outside the Aceh governor's office in Banda Acehon Oct 20, 2026. The demonstration on the second anniversary of President Prabowo Subianto's inauguration also urged the government to tackle the worsening climate crisis and rising cost of living. - Photo: AFP

"This haze is really bad. Sales are quiet. Prices keep going up, but there's no income," said Melsi, a 40-year-old streetside drinks vendor.

She cried as she spoke to AFP.

"What can we do? We're the little people, we can't do anything but hope that the government will handle it," Melsi said.

- 'Beaten up' -

Homemaker Sifra, 29, said her husband and two children have been coughing for a month.

"Even inside the house, the smoke gets in. Honestly, since the haze, my body aches, as if I've been beaten up. The immune system is down. I get coughs and colds easily."

Sifra, who like many Indonesians has one name, urged the government to step up its efforts -- echoing the call made by dozens who protested in Palangkaraya on Monday to demand the declaration of a state of emergency.

Police detained six activists who had draped Greenpeace protest banners from a monument on Jakarta's central Bundaran HI roundabout on Tuesday morning, before the student marches, according to Jeanny Sirait, a campaigner for the NGO.

One read: "Haze & Prabowo's Regime = National Disaster."

Schoolchildren walk along a smoke-shrouded road in Tegal Arum, Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, on Oct 20, 2026, as massive forest and land fires blanket the area in thick haze. Indonesian wildfires that have caused a regional haze crisis burned more than 1.9 million hectares in the first nine months of 2026, a monitor analysing satellite data said on Oct 19. - Photo: AFP

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Berton Panjaitan told journalists in the capital more than 60,000 firefighters, including volunteers, were deployed in dousing efforts countrywide.

Forty-nine aircraft were available for water bombing and cloud seeding to make rain, although many have been grounded intermittently due to the haze.

The Nusantara Atlas wildfire monitor said on Monday the Indonesian blazes have burned more than 1.9 million hectares of land in the first nine months of 2026.

The fires have sent air pollution levels soaring as far afield as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Indonesia experiences fires every dry season, but this year's blazes have been particularly severe, partly due to a particularly severe episode of the El Nino weather phenomenon. - AFP