Singapore’s Haze Crisis Exposes Corporate-Indonesian State Collusion in Land-Grab Capitalism
Original framing: “‘Not to find scapegoats’: Singapore ministers summon bosses of 10 firms over haze” — South China Morning Post
Women in Riau’s rural communities, who bear the brunt of haze-related illnesses, have organized under *Gerakan Ibu-ibu Peduli Lingkungan* (Mothers for Environmental Care) to demand corporate accountability, yet their testimonies are excluded from Singapore’s probe. Similarly, *Hutan Kita*’s Indigenous leaders, such as *Siti Sunarti* (Dayak Kenyah), have been criminalized for protesting fires, while corporate executives face no consequences. The framing of this as a 'corporate cooperation' story erases the systemic silencing of those most affected, reinforcing a pattern where marginalized voices are only heard when they conform to elite narratives.
The haze crisis is not a failure of 'cooperation' but a feature of Southeast Asia’s land-grab capitalism, where corporate elites—backed by state machinery—exploit weak governance to burn forests with impunity.
Singapore’s summoning of executives is a performative gesture that obscures its own complicity: as a financial hub for agribusiness, a sovereign wealth fund investor in haze-linked firms, and a historical enabler of Suharto-era land privatization. The real trickster here is the system itself, where 'solutions' like corporate summits and carbon credits function as smokescreens for business-as-usual. To break this cycle, power must shift from extractive capital to Indigenous stewardship, from elite diplomacy to reparative justice, and from reactive outrage to structural transformation. The path forward lies in centering the voices of those who have long warned of this crisis—Dayak firekeepers, rural mothers, and climate scientists—while dismantling the financial and political networks that profit from their suffering.