President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo flew to Riau on September 16, 2019. He led a meeting where he expressed his disappointment in the handling of forest fires. The President had instructed his underlings to focus on fire management since the beginning of the year, and yet we’re still struggling with forest fires. His threats and instructions seemed useless. When the President came to Riau, the Governor was abroad. It was a mess. Compare that to the handling of forest fires in West Kalimantan. The Governor of West Kalimantan is the only head of region who has been routinely providing information on forest fires in his province. He also directly led various activities to stop forest fires.

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