Don't betray Aceh - Get coordinated<\/p>\n
Endy M. Bayuni, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Bodies are still scattered on the streets and under the rubble in
\nBanda Aceh, Meulaboh and many other towns in Aceh. Tens of
\nthousands of survivors are still without food, clean water,
\nmedicines or even clothes to change into.<\/p>\n
Their ordeal and suffering continue.<\/p>\n
Such is the scene depicted by Metro TV on Thursday, five days
\nafter the deadly combination of a strong earthquake and massive
\ntidal waves devastated Aceh.<\/p>\n
For the dead and the living, help is still not coming, or it
\nis not coming fast enough.<\/p>\n
The situation in Aceh seems to be getting more desperate by
\nthe day.<\/p>\n
And it's not as if help is not forthcoming.<\/p>\n
Relief supplies sent from national and foreign organizations
\nand governments are reaching the Banda Aceh airport. In fact,
\nsupplies are literally piling up there by the ton. But they are
\nnot being distributed quickly to the intended targets.<\/p>\n
Metro TV's Najwa Shihab, who has kept the nation abreast of
\ndevelopments -- or in this case lack of developments -- in Aceh
\nthese past few days, could not hide her frustration as she
\nreported on camera live on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"There is no coordination,\" she said as her voice faded and
\nreplaced by sobs. \"I have seen little change from yesterday.\"<\/p>\n
Indonesia faces a Herculean task. The country has never
\nexperienced a calamity of this magnitude before -- over 45,000
\ndead and hundreds of thousands displaced.<\/p>\n
Still, a little more coordination could ease the pain and
\nsuffering of the people in Aceh.<\/p>\n
Take the issue of burying tens of thousands of dead as an
\nexample.<\/p>\n
There aren't enough workers left in these areas to bury the
\ndead. Many Acehnese are either too stricken by grief to do
\nanything because they have lost loved ones, or simply too weak as
\nthey have been without food, clean water and medicines.<\/p>\n
The job is left to volunteers brought in from the outside. But
\nthere is only so much they can do. The task of moving badly
\nmangled and putrefying bodies from under the rubble and burying
\nthem inevitably takes much of their time.<\/p>\n
Bringing in volunteers from outside requires good
\ncoordination. They have to bring their own tents to sleep in, and
\ntheir own food. They cannot eat rations intended for victims or
\nuse the limited number of tents available in the area.<\/p>\n
And they need heavy equipment, like cranes, to bury the dead
\nen mass.<\/p>\n
Then, there is the question of the lack of trucks to take
\nrelief supplies from the airport to the people. And even if there
\nwere enough trucks available, there is not enough fuel to run
\nthem. And then there is the question of clearing roads of debris
\nbefore they become passable.<\/p>\n
The Metro TV reporter hit the nail on the head when she
\nhammered at the lack of coordination on the ground in bringing
\nhelp to the people of Aceh.<\/p>\n
Coordinating the relief operation is now the biggest
\nchallenge.<\/p>\n
The outside world is ready to help the people of Aceh. Massive
\nfund raising campaigns are underway throughout Indonesia and the
\nrest of the world. But it is frustrating to see that the relief
\noperation has been hampered by poor, in fact almost non-existent,
\ncoordination.<\/p>\n
Whose job is it then to coordinate the relief operation?<\/p>\n
The Aceh provincial administration and its structure were
\ndecimated. It is estimated that only half of the administration's
\nemployees in Banda Aceh survived the tragedy. And most government
\noffices in Banda Aceh were destroyed.<\/p>\n
Without a government structure in place, coordination becomes
\nalmost non-existent.<\/p>\n
The central government had to step in. There is nobody else
\naround to do the job.<\/p>\n
Vice President Jusuf Kalla only announced this decision on
\nWednesday when it could have been taken on Day 1 or Day 2 of the
\ncalamity. And even after the announcement was made, someone down
\nthe bureaucratic line insisted that the Civil Emergency
\ngovernment in Aceh was still in control.<\/p>\n
Another sign of poor coordination was the question of permits
\nfor foreign relief agencies to operate in Aceh. By invoking
\nnational disaster status, the government effectively opens the
\nway for these groups to send aid directly to Aceh. Jusuf Kalla
\nreaffirmed this, but yet another lower ranking official insisted
\nthat they must all obtain permits from the government, which can
\ntake two weeks or more to issue.<\/p>\n
We can understand why it took two days for the government to
\nrestore power and telecommunication facilities in Aceh: many of
\nthe power and telecommunication workers in the area were also
\nkilled in the tragedy.<\/p>\n
But five days after the disaster struck, surely the relief
\nsupplies should start reaching the victims.<\/p>\n
Where is the coordination?<\/p>\n
The presence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice
\nPresident Jusuf Kalla in Aceh earlier this week brought a lot of
\nhope and comfort to the people there that help was on its way.<\/p>\n
Their presence also led to the impression that they were there
\nto supervise hands-on the rescue and relief operations.<\/p>\n
But the reality on the ground on Day 5 has been very
\ndisappointing to say the least.<\/p>\n
Unless help gets underway soon, the goodwill created by those
\npresidential visits will quickly dissipate. And frustration, as
\nexpressed by the Metro TV reporter, will start to set in. Her
\nfrustration is a reflection of the frustration of the people of
\nAceh, and of people in the rest of the country.<\/p>\n
Unless help gets underway soon, we will be confronting yet
\nanother horrific calamity: The number of deaths will soar, and
\nnot because of the discovery of more bodies in some remote
\nvillages. This time, the fatalities will increase because of our
\nown neglect and our failure to help them on time.<\/p>\n
This republic has done its utmost over these past few years to
\ndefuse separatist sentiments among Aceh people. At times, the
\nmilitary acted over-zealously at the expense of people's human
\nrights as it fought the separatist rebels.<\/p>\n
If this nation, and particularly this government, still
\nbelieves in the \"territorial integrity\" of Indonesia that
\nincludes Aceh, then we must show it, with the same zealous
\ndetermination that we have shown to keep Aceh a part of the
\nIndonesian state.<\/p>\n
Save our Aceh. Save our Souls.<\/p>\n
The writer is editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/dont-betray-aceh-get-coordinated-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }