‘The officials are morons’: Haze that reached Malaysia now has Indonesian students protesting in central Kalimantan

Palangkaraya, Indonesia - In a display of frustration, hundreds of students took to the streets in Indonesia's Palangkaraya on Friday night, demanding a more effective response from authorities to the ongoing wildfire crisis. The students, donning surgical masks to combat the thick haze, gathered beneath an orange sky with limited visibility, holding banners urging the government to declare a national emergency to secure additional aid.

One protest banner boldly declared, "The officials are morons, yet they get fantastic perks while the lives of the common people are tragic."

The demonstrators sang Indonesia's patriotic song, Pemuda Pusaka, and engaged in light confrontations with police. No injuries or arrests were reported; however, after the sun set, the protesters cleaned up their area before dispersing peacefully. Protest leader Yuyun Sanjaya addressed the crowd, urging the Central Kalimantan provincial government to acknowledge its inability to control the disaster, thereby enabling the situation to be declared a national disaster.

"How is it possible that such thick, dense smoke is being inhaled by helpless elderly people and newborn infants, and the government simply lets it happen?" Sanjaya questioned.

In the nine months leading up to September, more than 1.9 million hectares had burned in Indonesia, according to deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas. The government's confirmation or denial of this figure remained unclear. The resulting haze had sickened hundreds of thousands across Indonesia and extended to neighboring Malaysia, Singapore, and East Timor.

Diplomatic objections from neighboring countries had prompted growing impatience at home, manifested in sporadic anti-government protests. On Thursday, Indonesian schoolchildren in Java prayed for rain amid ongoing wildfire destruction in several regencies and conservation areas.