Malaysian Kids Stay Home as Smoke From Indonesian Fires Spreads
AFP reports that haze from peatland and forest fires has shrouded cities in Southeast Asia for more than a month. Malaysia's prime minister now wants urgent talks among regional environment ministers.
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Oct 9, 12:00 UTC ·
885 words
Malaysia closed schools in Kuala Lumpur and other parts of the country on Friday, October 9, as haze attributed to fires in neighboring Indonesia spread across the border, with 37 locations reporting unhealthy air. [1][2]
The story is still moving. The closures, the readings and the diplomacy are on the record. Where the fires are burning, and how the smoke is travelling, is not yet.
Which schools closed
Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said she had ordered the closures. She added that future decisions would be announced in advance so parents had time to prepare. [1][2]
The two accounts differ slightly on detail. The Nation reported that the closures covered Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor, the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, and Rompin district in Pahang. [2] AFP described full closures in four states and two federal territories, and a partial closure in Pahang. [1]
The minister's promise of advance notice is a quiet admission that more closures may follow.
What the air readings show
Kuala Lumpur's Air Pollutant Index, Malaysia's national scale for air quality, stood at about 170 on Friday. Malaysia calls anything above 100 unhealthy, above 200 very unhealthy and above 300 hazardous, so 170 is unhealthy and not hazardous. [1]
The schools closed anyway, because the country's king has set a lower bar. Sultan Ibrahim has said schools should shut when the index reaches 150 or higher. [1] That is well short of the very unhealthy category. It tells you how cautious the authorities are about children breathing this air.
The Nation, citing Post Today, reported that 37 locations in Malaysia logged unhealthy readings on Friday morning. [2]
AFP also reported that, according to the monitoring firm IQAir, Kuala Lumpur ranked as the world's second-most polluted city on Friday morning, behind Singapore. Singapore's reading on IQAir's index was 205, which that index classes as very unhealthy. [1] That is a different scale from Malaysia's, so the 205 and the 170 cannot be set side by side.
AFP said haze from peatland and forest fires had shrouded cities in the region for more than a month and that respiratory complaints were rising. It gave no figures. [1]
Peat is the thick layer of partly decayed plant matter that fills many wetlands. Once alight, it can smolder for a long time.
Anwar turns to Jakarta and ASEAN
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he had discussed the fires with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who, according to Anwar, agreed to take the necessary steps. The AFP account does not say what those steps are. [1]
Malaysia is also acting on its own side of the border. It said it was using cloud seeding, which means dispersing particles into clouds to try to coax rain out of them. [1]
Anwar said he had asked Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan to seek an urgent meeting of ASEAN environment ministers. ASEAN is the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the region's main political bloc. [1] The Nation reported that he offered Malaysia's help to Indonesia and wanted the talks to focus on regional coordination and practical support for firefighting. [2]
Indonesian authorities were working to control fires in several areas, according to The Nation, though the report names no fire sites. [2] Indonesia's own account of Anwar's conversation with Prabowo is not in the reporting gathered so far. Nor is there any sign yet of whether Jakarta has accepted Malaysian help.
A very strong El Niño in the forecast
Indonesia's weather agency, BMKG, published a seasonal outlook on October 2. It put the June-August 2026 index for the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the climate cycle that swings the tropical Pacific between warm El Niño and cool La Niña phases, at +2.20. BMKG classified that as a very strong El Niño and forecast El Niño conditions continuing into early 2027. [3]
El Niño shifts rainfall patterns worldwide. In Indonesia it tends to mean a drier dry season, and dry ground burns more easily. The BMKG outlook gives that context for fire risk. It does not say El Niño caused these fires or show where they started. [3]
If the forecast holds, dry conditions will not end with this week's closures.
What is not yet known
The reporting gathered so far does not identify the burning provinces, give a satellite count of hotspots, or measure the path of the smoke into Malaysia. It does not name those responsible for the fires or report any enforcement action. It gives no figure for fine-particle pollution, the tiny airborne particles that do the most damage to lungs, and no hospital data.
What the closures say
The fires are attributed to one country and the schools are shut in another. That gap is the political problem.
A government can order its own schools closed in a morning, but it has no power to put out a peat fire on someone else's land. All it can do is ask, offer help and call a meeting.
Anwar has now done all three. Whether Indonesia names what it will do at which fires, and whether the regional ministers actually sit down together, will show whether this round of haze ends any differently from the ones before it.
For now Malaysia is waiting on a reply, and its education minister has told parents to expect more notices. The next fact to look for is whether the ASEAN meeting Anwar has requested is scheduled.
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