First he said Indonesia does not need to apologise for the haze. Then he said Singapore "can come and see for themselves if they want to help. Don't just talk".

Oh, he also said Indonesia's neighbours didn't thank the country for 11 months of "nice air".

Now, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla strikes again, blaming the wind for the haze that blanketed neighbouring countries since September this year.

He was speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) CEO summit where he was answering a question on the challenges his goverment faces in stamping out the yearly haze caused by slashing and burning vegetation.

"I'm so sorry to Malaysia and Singapore to say that we cannot control the wind. We don't want the haze to go everywhere. (It happened) not because we want it to (affect) our neighbours, but because of the wind."

We don't know how to respond to that, really... but perhaps a big thumbs up for the sarcasm is due.

To be fair, he did acknowledge that the haze is a "big problem" and thanked countries, which included Singapore, that sent planes to help put out the fires.

Then again, his wind-blaming could well have been a humorous (to him, perhaps) non-sequitur, since he later noted that the El Nino weather phenomenon also made things worse this year.

Yet, he couldn't resist another dig, saying:

"Ten months every year, the good weather goes to our neighbours. You enjoyed it, we did not ask you to pay for it. But if there's some bad problem, it is our problem to the region too."

Hmmm... We guess it's sort of an admission when you cut down from 11 months to 10?

H/T: The Straits Times.

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