Tsunami reconstruction plan leaves Acehnese no wiser<\/p>\n
Aguswandi, London<\/p>\n
Post-tsunami reconstruction in Aceh is difficult work. It is
\nnot made any easier by the public being rendered illiterate by
\nthe process. Many local activists and local people I have spoken
\nwith say that many international groups and even the government
\nseem to be more accountable to their donors and international
\nbodies than to the Acehnese.<\/p>\n
On May 13, the newly established reconstruction authority
\n(BRR), set up to oversee the post-tsunami reconstruction process,
\nheld its first meeting with local NGOs and international NGOs
\nworking in Aceh. It was a meeting to communicate their presence
\nand their mandate in Aceh. This was a positive initiative in
\norder to share their plans as widely as possible.<\/p>\n
The introduction to the meeting was made in English by Kuntoro
\nMangkusubrata, the chairman of BRR. A friend who attended the
\nmeeting assumed that English would only be used for the
\nintroduction. However, in the following sessions, during which
\nthe participants divided into small groups for discussion,
\nEnglish was still being used as the language of communication.<\/p>\n
The friend, an NGO activist, who has good English, started to
\nspeak in Bahasa Indonesia, to encourage the other participants to
\nspeak in their own language. Yet, the many foreign workers
\nattending the workshop continued to converse in English. This
\nleft many Acehnese participants only able to grasp the \"yes and
\nno\" of the discussions.<\/p>\n
This week I attended the House of Representatives Civic
\nInformation Fair in Senayan. The fair was supposed to provide
\ninformation and discussions about work being carried out in Aceh.
\nNot only did visitors get very little information, but many of
\nthem were disappointed to see that most of the representatives
\nstanding by their organizations' stalls were too junior or too
\nlacking in in-depth knowledge to explain what their organizations
\nwere doing in Aceh.<\/p>\n
This was especially true of UN agencies and some international
\nNGOs. Among the international agencies, only OXFAM saw fit to
\nsend senior staff to stand at their stall and share information
\nabout their work in Aceh.<\/p>\n
This picture of international agencies at the fair contrasted
\nsharply with many of the local NGOs, who appeared more serious in
\nproviding information on their work in Aceh. Save Emergency for
\nAceh (SEFA) and the Joint Committee for Aceh (KBKA), two main
\nlocal NGOs, made sure that their directors represented the
\norganizations at the fair.<\/p>\n
Then I visited the United Nations Office for the Coordination
\nof Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) desk. Out of all the organizations
\nat the fair, it was OCHA that had the most comprehensive
\ninformation. A young woman standing at the stall showed visitors
\ntheir wonderful electronic information, ranging from a blueprint
\nto assessments that had been provided. She said very
\nenthusiastically that the public could also access this
\ninformation on the OCHA website. I walked away noting the good
\nrange of information that they had, but wondering how local
\npeople without access to a computer, let alone the Internet, were
\ngoing to access this information, which of course was all written
\nin English.<\/p>\n
These experiences have been confirmed by a tsunami survivor,
\nTengku Malkun. Like many Acehnese affected by the tsunami, he is
\nliving in a camp for displaced persons. When I told him the
\ngovernment has prepared a blueprint and that it had all sorts of
\nplans for the reconstruction of Aceh, Malkun said he did not know
\nanything about these plans.<\/p>\n
Not a single group had gone to explain to him and the many
\nother people in the camp anything about the reconstruction
\nprocess and how they could be a part of these plans that would
\naffect their future. This is the case with many other Acehnese.
\nThey are not being informed enough about what is going on, nor
\nare any groups coming to explain in simple language the practical
\nmeanings of the bold blueprint produced last month.<\/p>\n
The establishment of the BRR is good move. It has a direct
\nreporting line to the President and can avoid the all too common
\ncomplex bureaucracy of other institutions. We also hope the BRR
\nwill counteract the overlapping power structures in Aceh, which
\nare the result of the endless impositions of military operations
\nin the region.<\/p>\n
Locals also hope that the establishment of the agency will
\ntransform the way Jakarta is represented in Aceh. The appointment
\nof a clean bureaucrat for the region is welcomed. However, the
\nchallenge for the BRR is to provide the public with full and
\naccurate information.<\/p>\n
International groups should also be more proactive in
\nexplaining their work to the Acehnese in an accessible manner,
\nand to engage more with ordinary people. Many groups have come to
\nmeet Acehnese, endless interviews and assessments have been
\ncarried out and too many consultants have been hired at very high
\nsalaries to identify the needs of the Acehnese. Not many of these
\ngroups have come back to explain in an understandable manner what
\nplans they have developed.<\/p>\n
The lack of information for locals contravenes accepted
\ninternational standards, including the Humanitarian Charter and
\nMinimum Standards Response. The Humanitarian Charter 2004 clearly
\nstates that women and men of all ages affected by disasters,
\nincluding vulnerable groups, must receive information about
\nassistance programs, and be given the opportunity to speak with
\nassistance agencies at all stages of the project cycle. So far
\nthis seems not to be the case in Aceh.<\/p>\n
The writer is an Acehnese human rights advocate working for
\nTAPOL London. He can be contacted at agus_smur@hotmail.com.<\/p>",
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