![\"Muhammad](\"https:\/\/www.freemalaysiatoday.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=3840,quality=80,format=auto,fit=scale-down,metadata=none,dpr=1,onerror=redirect\/https:\/\/media.freemalaysiatoday.com\/v3\/2026\/10\/2209f0bd-c313-4520-9257-689c7ebeaac0-Former-Indonesian-Trade-Minister-Muhammad-Lutfi-left-and-Syed-Saddiq-tile201026-.jpg\"\/)
<\/div>Former Indonesian trade minister Muhammad Lutfi has hit back at Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman over the Muar MP\u2019s call to treat Indonesia as an \u201coutcast\u201d in Asean over the recurring transboundary haze.<\/p><\/div>\n
Lutfi said the haze was not an opportunity for political grandstanding, and that Indonesian firefighters had died battling the blazes while hundreds of thousands of Indonesians were breathing in the smoke.<\/p>\n
He argued that Malaysian companies operating plantations in Indonesia must also be held responsible for the crisis, claiming Malaysian plantation groups controlled up to 3.4 million hectares of land in the country while some financed their operations through Malaysian banks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHold every rogue corporation accountable, whether Indonesian or Malaysian. But never insult an entire nation that gave your industries the land and licences to thrive,\u201d he said on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Lutfi said while the US previously banned imports from Malaysian palm oil producers FGV Holdings and Sime Darby Plantation over allegedly forced labour, Indonesia had refrained from condemning Malaysia as a nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Indonesia call the entire nation of Malaysia an outcast because of that? Never.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said the Greenpeace report Syed Saddiq cited during his debate identified 19 fire hotspots in Indonesian concessions linked to Malaysian groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want accountability, investigate the companies and their supply chains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t understand how this business works, don\u2019t make my whole country a target.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lutfi served as Indonesia\u2019s trade minister from Feb 14 to Oct 20, 2014 under president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and again from Dec 23, 2020 to June 15, 2022, under president Joko Widodo.<\/p>\n
His remarks followed Syed Saddiq\u2019s call in the Dewan Rakyat last week for Malaysia to rally Asean countries to exert diplomatic and financial pressure on Indonesia over the recurring haze.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the 2027 budget debate, Syed Saddiq urged Malaysia to rally Asean against the haze, cut off financing to companies linked to open burning and mobilise consumers to pressure businesses implicated in the fires.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to treat them as an outcast in the region,\u201d said Syed Saddiq.<\/p>\n
In a separate Instagram post, Lutfi also called for Singapore to scrutinise the involvement of locally based executives and corporate groups in Indonesian companies linked to land fires that contribute to the haze.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Singapore\u2019s National Environment Agency said it would issue notices to three additional Indonesian companies over fires in Kalimantan suspected of contributing to the haze in Singapore, bringing the total number of firms targeted under Singapore\u2019s Transboundary Haze Pollution Act to 10.<\/p>\n
Smoke from wildfires in Indonesia has blanketed parts of Malaysia and Singapore in recent weeks, with El Nino-related dry weather worsening the blazes.<\/p>\n
Last week, government spokesman Fahmi Fadzil said most of the fires observed in Indonesia occurred outside oil palm concessions owned by Malaysian companies, according to checks with the firms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Former Indonesian trade minister Muhammad Lutfi\u2019s remarks followed Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman\u2019s call in the Dewan Rakyat last week for Malaysia to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}