Americans should be commended

V.K. Chin, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

It is in pretty poor taste for anyone to question the motive of foreign governments responding to calls to help the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster.

This is the position some of them find themselves in, especially the United States, which was among the first to dispatch an aircraft carrier to Banda Aceh on a humanitarian mission.

It is unusual that some groups in Indonesia and the media should wish to play games while tens of thousands of their countrymen in Aceh were killed and the whole town almost wiped out by giant waves caused by the earthquake which measured 9.0 on the Richter Scale.

Instead of positive thinking, these people were indulging in politics to criticize the U.S. for sending military personnel to do the job.

They claimed that the Bush administration was just trying to get some mileage in helping the biggest Islamic nation in the world.

Be that as it may, the Americans and the other governments did what was expected of them and surely the idea of winning the hearts and minds of the Muslims was the least of their concerns.

They had responded to the call for assistance and tried to do their best to help in this effort. They did not rush to Banda Aceh immediately after the calamity as the initial publicity on the damage was on Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

All the foreign media have been reporting in this region for decades and many have correspondents posted in their respective capitals. So when disaster struck, they were on the scene to report the carnage.

When the scale of the devastation in Aceh was made known, the foreign governments, especially the Western nations, immediately sent men and equipment to help out.

The reason why the military was involved, was due mainly to practical purposes. Unlike the non-governmental organizations, which need time to organize such a huge relief work, the military could be mobilized immediately.

Military personnel would go where they were ordered irrespective of the dangers involved in such assignments. The U.S. sent an aircraft carrier because it already had thousands of men on board.

The most important consideration is that an aircraft carrier has many helicopters, which will play a key role in such relief work. An ordinary plane will have limited use as it can only carry supplies to areas where they can land.

Helicopters, on the other hand, can land almost anywhere and therefore are extremely useful in ferrying medicines, water, food and other essential goods to victims.

Of course they can be used to take those needing urgent medical attention to the nearest centers for treatment. The American presence, whether military or civilian, should be commended as they certainly made a difference and no doubt were responsible for saving the lives of thousands of the Acehnese who would have otherwise died of starvation and disease.

The Acehnese are not complaining and those who do are from outside the area. In fact, the rest of Indonesia should be doing something to relieve the suffering and hardship suffered by the Acehnese, who would no doubt be grateful for whatever assistance they can get.

One interesting point that people would like to know is just how much money has been collected by the rest of Indonesia to be used to help the Acehnese in their hour of need.

Such donations and contributions should at least try to match what the rest of the world had so generously given. Let us hope that those in Java and other parts of Indonesia will put their money where their mouth is.