Generation Z in Indonesia expands protests against government response to forest fires

(Hanoi = Yonhap News) Correspondent Park Jin-hyung = In Indonesia, which is experiencing the worst forest fire in 11 years, protests against the government's response are gradually spreading, led by Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012).

According to the Associated Press on the 24th (local time), about 500 protesters outside the governor's office in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan Province, Borneo, the day before, called for a solution to the forest fire and smoke problems.

Protesters, mainly Generation Z college students, wore thick masks to protect themselves from air pollution and gathered on a street covered in haze.

Holding pickets with slogans such as 'Haze emergency' and 'If we burn, you burn with us,' they demanded active and specific responses from the government led by President Prabowo Subianto, such as declaring a national disaster emergency and eradicating agricultural practices such as arson for clearing purposes, which are blamed for causing forest fires.

In addition, hundreds of protests were held throughout the country, including Banjarmasin and Samarinda in South Kalimantan Province and Pontianak in West Kalimantan Province.

Vincent Thomas, a student at Pajajaran University who participated in the protest in Bandung, West Java, told the AP, "The Indonesian people are very angry. I hope that the responsible authorities will be held accountable," and that "I want the government to officially declare a national disaster emergency."

Previously, on the 20th, hundreds of university students held a protest in the capital Jakarta, hosted by the University of Indonesia (UI) Student Council, criticizing the government's response, defining the forest fire as a "political disaster, not a natural disaster."

As dry weather continues this year due to the El Niño phenomenon, the scale of forest fires spreading mainly on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra is assessed to be the most serious since 2015.

According to Indonesia's Ministry of Health, the number of patients with acute respiratory diseases in seven provinces affected by haze has exceeded 333,470 since mid-August when forest fires became more severe.

In addition, there are signs of an economic crisis, with the value of the Indonesian rupiah plummeting in the aftermath of this year's war in the Middle East and the stock market plummeting due to a warning of a downgrade of the Indonesian stock market by MSCI, a global stock index company.

As the voices of the protesters grew louder, protests against the forest fires spread to more than six cities across the country this week.

Indonesia's Generation Z, which leads the protests, held large-scale protests last year to protest housing allowances for members of the National Assembly, which led to a wave of Generation Z anti-government protests that swept across Southeast Asia and South Asia.

In response, the Prabowo administration has increased the number of forest fire-fighting personnel from about 44,000 in the middle of last month to the current level of 69,000, and is deploying about 50 aircraft to carry out aerial spraying and artificial rain work.

However, the government is conscious of the financial burden of the central government and refuses to declare a national disaster emergency, saying that it already has sufficient capacity to respond to forest fires. Attention is being paid to whether public opposition from Generation Z will grow further in the future.