As the ASEAN foreign ministers Meeting prepares to get underway in Brunei, the heavy haze blanketing parts of southeast Asia has offered a test of association¡¯s effectiveness.

Thick black smoke bellowing from the forest of Sumatra¡­

Inside, firefighters risking their lives to control the scorched earth¡­

Despite their bravery, the forest continues to burn.. entering its second week..

But the fire is a recurring problem

"Local people, especially in Riau, their habit each year they are planting their agriculture and palm oil, they are trying to find the easy way. What is the easy way, they burn, that is the cause of the fire," said Raffles B. Panjaitan, Director of Forest Fire Control.

The smoke created a haze that chokes neighboring countries Malaysia and Singapore. At one point the haze is so bad that it has reached hazardous level.. where it can be harmful just to breathe the air.

The finger pointing in Southeast Asia¡¯s worst air pollution crisis in 16 years has led to escalated tension between the neighbors. Not just because of the severity of the problem this time.. but for the regular occurrences of it

"To be honest, we were a little bit late to anticipate this disaster, normally the fires occur in july to august cycle, but this time it started in June.. but we are coordinating directly with the president to handle this fire as soon as possible," Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said.

The Indonesian president have apologizes to its neighbours and pledged $20m dollars to handle the disaster.

But unless there is clear political will from Indonesia, that can change the fact that Indonesia standing out as the single and most prominent hold-out in ratifying the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

The devastation of environment and behind-doors loathing between countries could unravel attempts to convince the world that ASEAN is a united political bloc worthy of respect.