Singapore on Friday heaved a sigh of relief as it flagged off its Formula One (F1) night race under relatively clear skies, after a week of being blanketed by smoke pollution. The haze, an annual event caused by fires blazing in neighbouring Indonesia , had cast a pall over the race, one of Singapore ’s biggest tourism events. Even though organisers on Thursday said there were no plans to amend the schedule for the three-night race, they also noted the situation was “highly changeable”. The haze has worried racers, including F1 champion Lewis Hamilton. “I have been told not to go for runs outside, but I don’t know how that would impact us in the race,” the British racer told AFP on Thursday. “Tonight and tomorrow, I will speak to my team about it, but there’s only so much we can do, we can’t wear an extra mask in our helmets, so it is what it is,” Hamilton said. “Naturally, you blow your nose after a race and loads of soot comes out … you’ve got the carbon and all the other stuff you are breathing in, so clean air is an important part of it.” Malaysia, Indonesia shut thousands of schools as toxic haze intensifies The smoke blows over from Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo during the dry season from July to October, when peatlands burn and forested land is cleared for agriculture by the slash-and-burn method. The peat fires spread quickly and are difficult to put out. The haze is worse in some years, when the air reaches such unhealthy levels that normal life comes to a standstill. Singapore and Malaysia have been the worst affected this year. The emergence of the haze this year forced schools in Malaysia to shut, and had Singaporeans reaching for face masks and staying indoors, as pollution levels hit the unhealthy range for the first time since 2016. NOT AGAIN Each time the haze makes its presence felt, the question that arises is why it remains a perennial problem despite years of diplomatic talks, international agreements and local regulations targeting culprits behind illegal fires. It is clear who the culprits are, based on satellite pictures showing the sharp increase in the number of hotspots in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Massimo Lupascu, an assistant professor of geography at the National University of Singapore, said three factors determined if the haze reached Indonesia’s neighbours: fire, wind direction, and weather conditions. “The chance of haze is high for Singapore and Malaysia if surface winds blow mainly from the southeast or southwest, and at times, from the west,” Lupascu said. This year, the region is also experiencing drier and hotter weather due to a climate phenomenon known as the Indian Ocean Dipole – the irregular oscillation of sea-surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean, which makes it optimal for haze to spread. Strong fires, the right wind direction, and dry weather conditions occurring at the same time have likely contributed to Singapore’s worst air pollution in three years, Lupascu said. The haze is back. Can Malaysia and Indonesia clear the air? As air pollutant levels reached unhealthy levels, Singaporeans were advised to avoid outdoor activity. Classrooms in schools and kindergartens have been equipped with air purifiers, and some private companies are ensuring that employees who work outdoors have masks. In some parts of Malaysia, such as Sarawak on Borneo island, visibility was reduced to 200 metres as air quality worsened, according to Malaysian media reports. On the peninsula, small airports in Ipoh and Subang saw flight disruptions. Malaysia’s health ministry said there was a 16 per cent increase in the number of people suffering from asthma this week, compared with the average in the past 10 weeks. The number of conjunctivitis cases also rose by 25 per cent in the same period. Helena Varkkey, a senior lecturer at the University of Malaya’s Department of International and Strategic Studies in Kuala Lumpur, said the haze would affect productivity and the tourism sector. Fish supplies could be affected as fishermen stay home due to low visibility, and there could also be crop failure because of reduced photosynthesis, added Varkkey, who has written a book about the haze in Southeast Asia . “The incidental costs are additional firefighting services and equipment, cloud seeding and water bombing. The World Bank report for Indonesia said the 2015 haze cost them about US$2 billion,” she said. Azmi Hassan, a geostrategist at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Perdana Centre and Geospatial Institute, said the haze could also have an indirect impact on the Malaysian economy, as a number of events had been postponed or cancelled. “Taking into account the lost opportunity from the cancellation of events, children not going to school, and health issues that arise, the haze may very soon put a dent on our GDP,” said Azmi, adding that much depended on how long the haze lasted. Malaysia on Wednesday closed 1,484 schools across several states, affecting more than a million students. To bring an end to the haze, slash-and-burn practices for agriculture should be minimised or stopped altogether, Azmi said, but this was where Indonesia “holds court”. ‘THORN IN THE FLESH’ Although Jakarta has taken various steps over the years to deal with the source of the haze, no real solutions have been seen. Sometimes it shifts the blame to its Southeast Asian neighbours, saying they have their own firestarters. At other times, Indonesian officials have said countries affected by the haze complained too much. “Malaysia has offered to help Indonesia fight the forest fires by providing appropriate firefighting assets but Jakarta refused,” Azmi said. In 2014, Singapore enacted the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA) to deter companies – both in and outside Singapore – from taking part in activities that contribute to the haze. At the centre of this nightmare is the government’s inability or unwillingness to punish the perpetrators Vinod Thomas A year later, Singaporean authorities clamped down on five errant firms from Indonesia, including multinational Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which is regularly listed among alleged culprits behind the Indonesian fires. In Indonesia, the Peatland Restoration Agency was established, and laws were enacted to ban the use of fires for clearing land. Last week, Indonesian authorities arrested more than 200 people suspected of involvement in activities that led to fires getting out of control. Jakarta also deployed more than 9,000 personnel to battle fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. But observers say much more needs to be done. Janice Lee, an assistant professor at the Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) Asian School of the Environment, said those to blame for the haze had a clear economic incentive to start fires. Indonesia arrests 185 as it struggles to bring fires under control Companies found to have used fire to clear land must be held accountable, either under Singapore’s THPA or by Indonesian laws, Lee said. She suggested that parties from consumers to financiers, and traders of palm oil and pulpwood products, needed to be made aware and engaged to promote sustainable land use. There is also a need to identify the actors benefiting from clearing peatlands and to dismantle the power structures that have not held them accountable, Lee added. Vinod Thomas, a Singapore-based former senior vice-president at the World Bank, said Indonesia needed to step up and show it was serious about dealing with the issue. “At the centre of this nightmare is the government’s inability or unwillingness to punish the perpetrators,” Thomas said. “The government promised to prosecute those who were responsible. But there has been no reported progress, with charges against suspected companies typically being dropped.” The haze issue had also been a “thorn in the flesh” for diplomatic relations between Indonesia and its neighbours, said Dedi Dinarto, a research associate at NTU’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. “Even at the level of statesmen, Indonesia and Malaysia have currently been embroiled in a fight regarding the transboundary haze pollution issue,” said Dedi, who is from Batam in Indonesia. Thomas found Singapore and Malaysia’s tolerance of the haze issue “puzzling”. “Malaysia and Singapore – despite the huge damage to health, wealth and well-being – have tolerated the annual haze from Indonesia for years,” he said. “Niceties of diplomatic relations among neighbouring countries, even in the Asean culture, should not come in the way of naming this crime again for what it is, and demanding action and results.”