ASEAN has always had a vision of being the magical problem solver in southeast Asia. Another problem has been highlighted the past few weeks -- the haze. So besides Singaporean and Malaysian leaders complaining to the Indonesian government, and clueless Indonesian farmers, nothing much has happened. All that ASEAN has resolved to do is have ministers meet every quarter. We all know that these meetings are just a farce, to pretend as if somebody somewhere is doing something about the smoke. And even if they were making a genuine effort, they're doing it wrongly.

They shouldn't have meetings every 3 months. That doesn't achieve anything other than having a reporting system which daily measurements by local meteorological stations make pointless anyway. What they should do is have one meeting. Just one. Get all the experts down, then decide on the course of action they need to take, appoint a monitoring body, and follow it through. Although the UN has not been the most efficient organisation, I think ASEAN has something to learn from it. Get other countries involved, because sooner or later they're going to be affected as well.

If Singapore wants to be the big shot again, then it can also take a leaf from the UN's book and send a task forced down to Indonesia, with the sanction of other ASEAN memebers. Then after the full scale of the problem has been ascertained, people will be needed to go to the ground and educate farmers about the alternative options of clearing the land. Or, the Indonesian government could do what was done during the Green Revolution. Subsidise the cleaner methods. No tragedy of the commons here, because Indonesia is receiving the brunt of the haze.

I will not be able to stand another day having my allergies act up. Puffy eyes and a running nose just kill your daily functionality.