There's not much latex to be tapped after rubber trees have been licked by flames. Instead, young men keep watch outside their villages, ready to sound an early warning should the fires spread their way. And the pollution is getting worse all the time, say residents of Jambi. Last week, some multinational companies in Sumatra decided they had had enough. They sent more than 1,000 expatriate staff and their families to Singapore.
Critics say the Indonesian response to the disaster has been slow, casual and incompetent.
But we have been sitting around. The advance scouting should have been done earlier. Instead they waited till we arrived. This has wasted precious time. Others wonder why Malaysians were being used at all as they have little knowledge of the techniques needed to tackle forest fires.