REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Minister/State Secretary Pratikno has indicated that the government will not interfere with the discourse on the establishment of the special House committee on haze.

"The government will focus its efforts on putting out forest and land fires and overcoming the impact of haze," he said on Wednesday.

He said that the government is giving priority to the handling of the problems. "The special committee has been initiated by and is the affair of the DPR," noted Pratikno here on Wednesday.

Pratikno was also reluctant to comment on the potential of the haze issue being politicized as a result of the action of the House of Representatives.

The minister only stressed that the government was waiting for the House's decision with regard to the special committee discourse.

According to Agus Hermanto, the deputy chairman of the DPR, the establishment of a House of Representatives (DPR) Special Committee (Pansus) to investigate the haze problem currently affecting Indonesia can help the government and law enforcers.

"The committee has the authority to investigate and summon the related parties. This can help the government and law enforcers," Agus Hermanto said on Tuesday.

Until Tuesday, October 27, eight of the 10 factions in the House of Representatives (DPR) had agreed to a proposal to set up a special committee to investigate the handling of haze in the country.

The forest and land fire-triggered haze has of late shrouded three quarters of the country as well as neighboring nations such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The eight factions are the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Democratic Party (PD), the United Development Party (PPP), the Golkar Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB).

Two other factions, the National Democratic Party (NasDem) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), have yet to take a stance on the debate to establish a special committee on haze.

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