Aceh restoration plan under fire
Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh
A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has condemned the central government for its failure to involve the public in drafting a master plan to rebuild Banda Aceh.
"The central government has not been participative. They should have introduced the draft of the city master plan to the public before they moved forward with the policy. They should have allowed public scrutiny to improve public policy," said Bambang Antariksa, an executive of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
Walhi is one among several NGOs grouped under the Peace Without Corruption Aceh Working Group.
According to Bambang, one clear example of the government's failure to involve the public in drafting the master plan was the government's plan to regreen Aceh's coastal areas with mangroves. The plan dates back to a few days after the tsunami disaster on Dec. 26 when Minister of Forestry M.S. Kaban announced his plan to regreen Aceh's coastline with mangrove forests.
Mangrove forests act as a natural barrier to protect the shoreline against tsunamis that could sweep away residential areas near the beaches. Hence, the reforestation plan is deemed crucial to prevent devastation in case of further tsunamis.
The draft of the master plan was then drawn up by the State Planning and Development Body (Bappenas) and the Ministry of Forestry is vested with the authority to implement the master plan.
According to the draft of the master plan, the ministry will regreen beaches along the west coast of northern Sumatra island hit by the tsunami. A fund of Rp 800 billion has been earmarked to regreen 150,000 to 200,000 hectares of beach area with mangroves.
The ministry is currently mapping out the area and gathering data on the condition of mangrove plants along the beaches, before they move forward with the reforestation project.
However, according to Bambang, the government should have involved public, considering that the planned reforestation area was formerly a residential area.
"The central government has to arrange compensation in advance and public participation is a must in order to minimize potential social disputes in the future," said Bambang.
Regarding the draft of the Banda Aceh master plan, the Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare, Alwi Shihab, had earlier said that the government was ready to accept any criticism.
Separately, Malaysia will send a team to Banda Aceh next week to help prepare a master plan to rebuild the area, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Najib will head a team of town planners and officials from Malaysia's public works ministry for Monday's visit to assess the destruction caused by the tsunami.