在残酷的厄尔尼诺现象助长印度尼西亚森林和灌木丛大火之际，过去几个月里，一团雾霾笼罩了整个东南亚。掩盖火灾责任的是法律上更深、更莫测的迷雾。烟雾蔓延至整个地区，迫使马来西亚学校停课、航班改道，并让没有自家干地着火的弹丸之地新加坡面临世界最严重的空气污染。如果当前趋势持续下去，这一事件可能演变成自2015年毁灭性野火以来东南亚最严重的一次。
A cloud of haze has descended across Southeast Asia over the past few months as a brutal El Nino helps incinerate forest and scrub in Indonesia. Obscuring responsibility for the fires stems from a much deeper and more impenetrable legal pall. The smoke has spread across the region, forcing schools to close in Malaysia, diverting flights and giving tiny Singapore — which has no dry lands of its own aflame — the worst air pollution in the world. If current trends persist, this episode may turn into the worst in Southeast Asia since devastating wildfires in 2015.
在地区最富裕国家新加坡听到的种种议论中，整个局势仿佛是一场天灾：火灾就是会发生，谁也无法确切搞清究竟是谁的责任。有一种更老练的诊断将其归咎于该地区最大国家的顽固不化。当新加坡在2014年通过一项法律，威胁对造成雾霾的公司处以数百万美元罚款时，印度尼西亚拒绝配合，导致该法无法实施。对这个城市国家而言，对巨邻保持审慎已成为外交的上上策。
To hear the way this is talked about in Singapore, the region’s wealthiest country, the whole situation is an act of God: Fires just happen and no one can be sure exactly who is responsible. A more sophisticated diagnosis blames intransigence in the region’s largest country. When Singapore passed a law in 2014 threatening millions of dollars in fines for companies causing haze, Indonesia’s refusal to cooperate made it impossible to implement. For the city-state, discretion toward its giant neighbor has become the better part of diplomacy.