Blueprint on Aceh's reconstruction lacks focus

A'an Suryana, Jakarta

After the emergency relief period, the government is now embarking on the second phase of the Aceh recovery program: rehabilitation. According to the draft blueprint for Aceh's recovery, the rehabilitation program will start in April and end in December next year. The rehabilitation program is primarily aimed at renovating and rebuilding public infrastructure -- hospitals, mosques and schools -- that were damaged or destroyed by the tsunami, and making them functional again.

In the second phase, the government will also focus on fixing crucial social problems, notably those related to land ownership. Claims over land are expected to soar, and if this matter is not handled well then it may well lead to serious social conflict. Other areas that must also be dealt with by the government is trauma healing among tsunami victims, and the refunctioning of the economy, including the banking network.

Rehabilitation will be a mammoth task for the government, and it will certainly needs huge sums of money to cope with it.

While the funds needed during the emergency relief phase reached a massive Rp 5.1 trillion (US$542 million), much more will certainly have to be drawn from the domestic budget and from international aid to cover expenditure for the rehabilitation program.

During the rehabilitation phase, funds will not only be earmarked to cover renovation and rebuilding of public infrastructure, but will also be used to cover expenses for compensation of tsunami victims. And, certainly, this will cost the government a lot.

In order to make the rehabilitation program a success, the government has stated in the draft blueprint that it will establish a special body to run the program. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will directly oversee the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Body, and its headquarters will be in Banda Aceh.

The body has three components; namely, a Steering Board, a Supervisory Board and an Implementing Body.

Overall, the draft blueprint has been praised for being open to participation from Acehnese. But, it has also drawn criticism from several quarters.

While the blueprint has apparently covered all aspects required for rehabilitation and reconstruction, it lacks detail when it comes to the all-important social development program.

"The program places too much emphasis on physical infrastructure rehabilitation and ignores social infrastructure," according to Rufriadi, a well-known Acehnese figure.

In the blueprint, the government spells out details for the rehabilitation of physical infrastructure, but fails to elaborate on the social aspects of rehabilitation, particularly the creation of jobs. The blueprint touches on the disbursement of credit for people wanting to start businesses, but fails to propose a strategy on how to create jobs. Such failure will be detrimental to the government's efforts to rebuild Aceh.

The employment problem has to be put high on the government's agenda. Soaring unemployment not only deprives life to tsunami survivors, but also creates significant social problems. Rising numbers of jobless will lead to higher rates of crime.

In order to address the unemployment problem, the government should have provided concrete explanations in the blueprint concerning a strategy to address the unemployment problem. It should have offered, for example, establishment of training centers in order to allow tsunami survivors to get better skills that are needed by employers. The blueprint should also have elaborated plans to create labor intensive projects that could employ tsunami survivors in the stricken province.

The draft also fails to provide social security scheme. Such a scheme is particularly important especially when supplies of food aid start to run low. We can not rely on international aid forever. The flow of aid will come to an end at some point and we have to be ready to be self-reliant.

The draft blueprint is at the same time ambitious and lacking in focus, in the sense that it attempts to broadly cover all aspects of life. It covers education, religion, culture, and physical rehabilitation; in the latter case, including the rebuilding of sport facilities.

The rebuilding of sport facilities may be necessary and worthwhile doing, but putting it in the blueprint may be inappropriate. The government should focus first on the important aspects of life such as food, jobs, medical facilities, housing and clothing before embarking on rehabilitating tertiary needs such as sport and entertainment.

It is not too late for the government to make revisions to the draft blueprint; it still has another month to make changes.

The draft may need to be revised in any case, after another major earthquake on late Monday night, measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, shook Nias and other parts of the island of Sumatra, including Banda Aceh. But, whatever the revisions, the plan has to be focused. And it needs to adequately address several immediate aspects such as job and food security.

If these crucial problems can be adequately addressed during the rehabilitation phase, then this will lay a firm foundation before the government embarks on the third phase of the Aceh recovery, namely the reconstruction phase that will begin in July 2006 and end in December 2009.

The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.