Acehnese see little progress in reconstruction work
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
People in Aceh and Nias have expressed little satisfaction in the progress of reconstruction and rehabilitation work in tsunami-hit areas, despite the government's claim that the pace of rebuilding is picking up, according to a survey.
The survey, carried out by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) in December, revealed that Acehnese think there has been a generous amount of aid given by local and foreign donors to help finance the reconstruction of areas ruined by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed over 170,000 people and made at least half a million people homeless in Aceh, in the northern tip of the island of Sumatra.
However, only 27 percent of 833 Acehnese respondents were happy with the progress of reconstruction work carried out by the government.
The level of satisfaction is below 40 percent with regards the development of housing, schools, clean water facilities, employment provision, medical facilities and so on in Aceh.
As for the performance of the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR), which has been given a mandate to lead the reconstruction work in the two regions, 38 percent of Acehnese think that BRR has performed generally well, 20 percent said the BRR worked fast, and 18 percent said that BRR's management was transparent and open.
In Nias, however, the level of satisfaction is even lower. Only 18 percent of 430 respondents said that a lot of progress had been made by the central government, 18 percent think that BRR performs well, 7 percent said BRR worked fast and 10 percent praised BRR's transparency and openness.
There is a gap, however, between the perception of people in Aceh and Nias and people in the rest of the country, in terms of the progress in reconstruction and rehabilitation work.
Out of 1,119 respondents throughout the country, 74 percent think that the government has made a lot of progress in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Aceh and Nias.
Rizal Sukma, researcher and deputy director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that people in Aceh and Nias might be uninformed.
"People in the rest of the country might be picking up the news about the progress from the media, so they knew something is being done," he said.
Meanwhile, BRR's director of donor and international relation, Heru Prasetyo, admitted that reconstruction process in Nias was really struggling.
"(Development) in Nias is difficult because the infrastructure there is not good. But we do whatever we can," he said, adding that it even took Japan 10 years to complete reconstruction work after the Kobe earthquake.
As for the criticism of the plan to deploy 15,000 soldiers to help speed up reconstruction in Aceh, Heru said the expertise of noncombatant soldiers might help development, particularly in coastal areas.
"Meulaboh harbor for instance was built with the help of amphibious troops from Singapore who did construction work under the sea. Surely, we cannot ask for their help, or other foreign soldier's help again, can we?
"We're not saying that we need the military, but we need their skills to develop the areas that are difficult to access," he said.
Rizal said that the reconstruction work was important, but must be in line with local demand.
"We shouldn't just focus on the speed of reconstruction, but we must also pay attention to the peace-building process."