The Palace Has Not Spoken of the Change of Officials due to Karhutla, Focus on Putting Out the Fire

Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi. (Teddy Kurniawan VOI)

JAKARTA - The government has not discussed the possibility of replacing regional officials or officials who are considered to have failed to handle forest and land fires. The palace chose to focus on fire extinguishing and handling karhutla which is still ongoing.

Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said the government had not discussed the replacement of the regional police chief, regional police chief, and regional military commander regarding the handling of the forest fire.

"We haven't gotten there yet. The most important thing is the President's instructions, we can immediately overcome the karhutla," said Prasetyo at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Tuesday, August 11.

According to Prasetyo, the central government is ready to support the needs of local governments, BNPB, Manggala Agni Ministry of Forestry, provincial governments, to national park offices involved in the blackout.

Prasetyo said a number of officers even experienced health problems after inhaling smoke for too long.

He asked that the handling of forest fires be a common concern, including by preventing activities that could potentially trigger fires.

Prasetyo gave an example of a fire in the Bromo Tengger area the previous year which was triggered by pre-wedding photo activities.

"Let's all be aware because this time El Nino is quite strong and the weather is quite dry," he said.

The government has also prepared weather modification operations or OMC as one of the handling efforts.

However, Prasetyo said the implementation of OMC depends on the cloud conditions.

According to the explanation of the Head of BMKG that he received, not every time there are clouds that allow weather modification operations to produce rain.

"This is a technical problem, but we have prepared everything as best as possible," he said.

When asked again about the possibility of a change of officials, Prasetyo emphasized that the government had not led to that.

"The important thing is that we concentrate first as soon as possible so that it can be overcome," he said.