Indonesians protested in several cities on Tuesday, raging against wildfires and a toxic haze that has made thousands unwell for weeks on end in a crisis that has engulfed Southeast Asia.

Demonstrations were called by students to display dissatisfaction with the government of President Prabowo Subianto, which marked its second year on Tuesday.

They railed against perceived ineptitude and corruption during protests in the capital Jakarta, but also in Bandung and Yogyakarta elsewhere on Java island, as well as Pekanbaru in Sumatra and Makassar in South Sulawesi.

Many pointed particularly to an inability to put out the fires that have ravaged vast swaths of Borneo and Sumatra islands since July.

"If we burn, you burn with us!" read a protest banner held up by a demonstrator in Jakarta.

"I have the right to breathe. Extinguish the fires immediately," said another.

Residents in the city of Palangkaraya, on Borneo, said they felt despair. "This haze is really bad. Sales are quiet. Prices keep going up, but there's no income," said Melsi, a 40-year-old streetside drinks vendor.

"What can we do? We're the little people, we can't do anything but hope that the government will handle it," Melsi said.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Berton Panjaitan told journalists in the capital more than 60,000 firefighters, including volunteers, were deployed in dousing efforts countrywide.

Forty-nine aircraft were available for water bombing and cloud seeding to make rain, although many have been grounded intermittently due to the haze.

The Nusantara Atlas wildfire monitor said on Monday the Indonesian blazes have burned more than 1.9 million hectares of land in the first nine months of 2026.

The fires have sent air pollution levels soaring as far afield as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. (AFP)


Edited by Aaron Tam