After Nias, where next?
After Nias, where next?
Today, just under two weeks after a huge earthquake demolished
their homes, burying hundreds of men, women and children in their
sleep, the people of Nias are still struggling to rebuild their
lives.
As of this weekend, many bodies were still under the rubble,
unrecovered due to a lack of heavy earth moving equipment. School
children, those who survived the March 28 killer quake and
escaped uninjured, were compelled to attend their lessons in
makeshift classrooms or in the open. Food, water and fuel were
hard to come by.
Though smaller in scale than the catastropic destruction that
was left in the wake of the Dec. 26 tsunami, which washed whole
towns and villages off the map, the human suffering that the 8.7-
scale earthquake has wrought on the once-idyllic island of Nias
is felt no less intensely by the island's population.
Not that help from outside has been wanting. As was the case
in the Aceh tsunami disaster, help has come in by the planeload
and by sea, sent over by concerned citizens overseas and
elsewhere across the country as soon as news of the disaster
spread. And as was true in the wake of the Dec. 26 calamity too,
friendly countries near and far have been prompt to extend a
helping hand to ease the suffering of the populace.
If something good has come out of this latest disaster, it
must be that it has strengthened the bond of solidarity and
mutual understanding -- both on the national and international
front -- that governmental mismanagement, oppression and
discrimination have for so long buried and pushed into near
oblivion.
All this, however, does not detract from the disturbing
impression that the various natural disasters that have occurred
over the past months have proven this country's capabilities to
deal with natural disasters to be grossly inadequate. As regards
the Dec. 26 tsunami and more recent Nias earthquake, it is easy
and certainly tempting to lay the blame for the nation's
inadequacy on the sheer scope and extent of the destruction.
Nevertheless, one cannot escape the impression that
neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, India and Sri
Lanka have shown themselves to be much more ready to act in the
face of disaster. The very fact that international teams have
often been first to offer help in some of the most remote of the
disaster-stricken areas should give us plenty of reason to think
about upgrading our own relief capabilities.
To be sure, this may not be as easy a task as it may seem. For
one thing, money in sufficient amounts must be set aside to
establish the organizational framework and set up the
infrastructure and equipment necessary for such a task. In the
face of such constraints, the government and the nation are well
advised to make the best use of the international offers that
have been made by governments and organizations abroad to come to
our and to the region's help.
Above all, the local populace of our coastal regions must be
made aware of the vital importance of keeping their protective
coastal environments intact. This is particularly true given the
inclination of Indonesians to dismiss or take lightly the
possibility of disaster until it actually strikes. Hopefully,
though, the devastation which the disasters of past weeks have
wrought in the area can serve as a reminder that prevention is
always better than the cure.