Prabowo held a limited meeting on karhutla at the Palace on October 12 (CNBC Indonesia, CNN Indonesia, Kumparan, Suara.com). Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Dudung Abdurachman said participants included the TNI commander, the Kapolri, the Forestry Ministry and BNPB. Antara and detikNews reported that firefighting is focused on Tanjung Puting, and that Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra are the priorities; South Sumatra was also designated for a dry ice trial. The government has not declared a national disaster (detikNews, Kompas.com), while House Commission IV called for that status (Antara). One report DailyDrop saw mentioned about 60,000 joint personnel and cloud seeding; that figure has not been confirmed by a second outlet.
Smoke from the fires affects health, flights and relations with neighboring countries, and national disaster status determines how much aid and central authority is available.
Residents of affected areas need to wear masks, monitor air quality and follow regional advisories. Air passengers from Sumatra and Kalimantan should check schedules.
The Palace meeting and the order to rotate firefighters show the President taking over coordination; the government judges national capacity still sufficient.
Three months of fires and protests from neighboring countries lead some DPR members to judge that national disaster status is needed so that resources and authority are larger.
A meeting is a beginning, not a result. Watch three things: how much of the hotspot area is actually extinguished, whether early rain comes as forecast, and whether the government changes its stance on national disaster status. The inauguration of a new agency head that Dudung mentioned for next week also deserves attention.
CNBC Indonesia, CNN Indonesia, Kumparan, Suara.com, Antara, detikNews, Kompas.com (Oct. 12, 2026)
Prabowo convenes ministers, TNI commander and police chief over forest and land fires; firefighting focused on Tanjung Puting, national disaster status not yet declared
A limited meeting at the Palace on Monday, October 12 ordered all resources deployed, with priority on Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra. The government considers itself still capable; one House of Representatives (DPR) member called for national disaster status.
President Prabowo Subianto held a limited meeting on forest and land fires (karhutla) at the Palace on Monday, October 12, according to CNBC Indonesia, CNN Indonesia, Kumparan and Suara.com. Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Dudung Abdurachman said the meeting involved several ministries and agencies, including the TNI commander, the National Police chief (Kapolri), the Forestry Ministry and the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB); some participants joined by Zoom. Dudung said the President is very serious about handling the problem, said CNBC Indonesia.
Kumparan wrote that the President asked for the response to be strengthened and firefighting sped up. According to Antara and detikNews, Prabowo ordered firefighting to be focused, among other places, on Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan, and made Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra priorities. Antara added that the President asked South Sumatra to be the site of a trial of dry ice, to disperse the haze. Coordinating Minister Dudung also said firefighters will be rotated so they do not become exhausted, according to Antara, which added that Prabowo praised the TNI, the police and the volunteers already working in the field. The message to be sent is clear: the Palace wants to be seen in control, after weeks of complaints about smoke from residents and from neighboring countries.
The government has not declared the fires a national disaster, according to detikNews and Kompas.com; Dudung said the government is still able to handle them. House Commission IV member Daniel Johan, for his part, called for that status because the fires have burned for three months, said Antara. Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian asked regional heads and the regional leadership forum (Forkopimda) to firmly ban land burning, and Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni is preparing sanctions for five to six more companies, according to Antara. The Jambi Regional Police are handling 18 reports and have named 16 suspects, said Antara.
The Forestry Ministry has also stepped in. Antara wrote that Minister Raja Juli Antoni went to South Kalimantan and reminded people that the fire alert period still has one month left, and said the number of forest rangers will be raised to 70,000. The Environment Ministry is designing funding so that residents do not clear land by burning, said Antara, and BNPB warned that northern Sumatra should stay alert for floods even though it is in drought.
The smoke has crossed borders. Kompas.com wrote that other countries have protested the smoke from the fires, and Dudung replied that peatland is hard to put out. BMKG reported that the spread of smoke from South Sumatra extended as far as the Bangka Strait, and Antara noted that Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport in Palembang is operating normally again. On aid from Malaysia, Antara ran two reports with different tones, one saying it had not been discussed and one saying it was under discussion, so its status is not yet clear.
For readers, what matters is results on the ground, not the meeting. A Palace-level meeting speeds up coordination, but burning peat is hard to put out and rain is the biggest help. What is not yet visible in the available sources: a target for the area to be extinguished, the budget, and the government’s criteria for raising the status to national disaster. Residents of Sumatra and Kalimantan need to monitor air quality and regional government advisories, and passengers passing through affected airports would do well to check schedules with their airlines. The coming weeks will show whether the Palace’s order really lowers the number of hotspots, or merely adds to the number of meetings.