Two million Malaysian students stayed home, and the smoke came from Indonesia

Malaysia closed schools on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and five states, and about two million students stayed home. The smoke came from across the border. Fires in six Indonesian provinces have burned at least 200,000 hectares, and the haze has drifted far enough to settle over the Malaysian capital. Kuala Lumpur's Air Pollutant Index, the country's own scale for how dirty the air is, reached about 170. Anything above 100 there counts as unhealthy, above 300 is hazardous, and above 500 is treated as a local emergency. Malaysia's king, Sultan Ibrahim, said schools should shut once the reading passes 150.

What changed this week is who is complaining, and how loudly. Al Jazeera reports that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called the haze a worrying issue, said he had spoken with President Prabowo Subianto, and that Prabowo agreed to take the necessary steps. No details followed. Anwar also told his foreign minister to push for an urgent meeting of ASEAN environment ministers, and Malaysia is widening its cloud seeding, which means flying planes into clouds to force rain out of them. Singapore's air moved into the very unhealthy band, and organisers of its Formula One weekend handed out masks and added medics while saying the haze was "not a threat."

At home the cost is still counted in lungs. Indonesia's health ministry has recorded more than 170,000 respiratory infections this season, and that figure only covers people who reached a clinic or hospital, so the real number is higher. A fire season that shuts schools in a neighbour's capital stops being a weather story and becomes a diplomatic one. Jakarta now has to answer at a regional meeting it did not ask for.

Why it matters

If you live in a fire province, the smoke you breathe is also the main thing Indonesia's neighbours will raise at the next ASEAN table, which makes official promises easier to check. Watch whether Prabowo's "necessary steps" turn into named districts and named companies, or stay general. For traders, students and anyone with family working in Malaysia or Singapore, the closures mean lost school days and slower business until the rain comes.