Disaster management for Aceh calamity

Ong Hock Chuan, Jakarta

It is heartening to see the amount of goodwill, generosity and willingness of Indonesians to help their compatriots in Aceh in the aftermath of the tsunami. At the same time it is disheartening to see how uncoordinated the rescue and relief efforts have been.

Unless there is more coordination, the various agencies and volunteer organizations will just continue to work in a counter- productive manner, because there is seemingly no entity in charge to set the objectives and priorities for the overall rescue and relief effort.

With the death toll nearing 100,000 and the infrastructure destroyed in most coastal areas, it is certainly a difficult task for the government to coordinate the relief operation.

However, they can do much, much better though, by adopting the Incident Command System (ICS) that has been developed by disaster recovery professionals worldwide.

At the top of the ICS is the incident commander. His/her function is to set the objectives and priorities of the rescue and relief efforts and assume overall responsibility for bringing the situation under control. There must be someone appointed to be responsible for it. It is now not clear whether Vice President Yusuf Kalla or the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab is the incident commander. The government would do well to make it clear to everyone who is really in charge.

The incident commander must be supported by three officers in charge of information, security and liaison work.

The information officer is in charge of gathering information from the field for the commander to make decisions. He is also in charge of disseminating information to the public via regular updates to the media. The security officer is in charge of the safety of the incident command as well as all rescue relief workers. The liaison officer is the bridge between the incident command and the four sections that report to the commander -- operations, planning, logistics and finance/administration.

The operations section conducts the tactical operations to carry out the plan from the incident commander. They are also charged with developing the tactical objectives and organization of the operations as well as directing all the resources of the rescue and relief efforts.

The planning section develops the action plan to accomplish the objectives set by the incident commander. It collects and evaluates information from the field and makes adjustments accordingly. It also maintains the status of all resources.

The logistics section provides support to meet the needs on the ground. It provides the resources by, for example, ensuring that there is enough transport to get the aid workers to their destinations, enough fuel for transport, enough facilities and equipment for the operations people to do their jobs well.

Finally, the finance/administration section monitors costs related to the incident as well as providing accounting, procurement, time recording and cost-analysis services.

By adopting this simple structure, the government would be able to focus all the well-meaning efforts of the aid agencies and volunteer organizations and be much more effective in getting help to Aceh.

There is no lack of expertise in setting up such structures in Indonesia. There are many multinational companies operating in the mining and oil and gas industries, for instance, who are trained disaster recovery professionals, and they could help set it up. Foreign countries and the UN also have such professionals who are more than willing to help. All the government has to do is to have the will to act decisively and fast, and most of all request help.

If it manages to do this, then it would win the respect of all Indonesians. Failure to do so could mean incurring the wrath of a nation with a pent-up fury resulting from having to tolerate successive incompetent governments over the years.

Already we are beginning to see the frustration and anger welling up from among the public and in the media. Time is running out for the government, but more importantly, time is also running out for the victims and the survivors -- if the situation in Aceh is not brought under control soon, we will see a horrible disaster on top of the one that we have just witnessed.

The writer is a Partner at PT Maverick Solusi Komunikasi, a PR consultancy specializing in crisis/issue management as well as brand communications. He can be reached at ong@maverick.co.id