'It has brought out the best in society'

The quake and tsunami that swept through the northwestern part of the country killed at least 80,000 Acehnese and destroyed a major part of the province. Relief workers and aid as well as volunteers have flown to the province to help bury the dead and to ease the plight of the survivors. People that The Jakarta Post talked to, however, saw some good come out of the devastating calamity.

Feta, 23, is doing her master's at the Prasetya Mulia School of Management in South Jakarta. She lives with her parents in Bintaro, also in South Jakarta:

I think the tragedy is a warning that we are nothing compared to nature. We have been made to realize that pride is a wasted emotion.

The eagerness of everyone across the country to help Aceh and North Sumatra residents also shows that we still have a high sense of solidarity as a nation. We are willing to make sacrifices for fellow citizens.

Actually, I before the tragedy I thought we were very selfish people and would ignore anything happening to anybody else.

All in all, I think the tragedy has brought back the humane side of, not only each of us, but all society.

Ramin, 31, is a taxi driver. He lives with his parents in Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta:

Aceh is a troubled province. Many Acehnese have been killed in armed conflict with the military in the past decade, the collective number could be in the thousands.

The natural disaster killed tens thousands of them, including soldiers and police deployed there, in one swift moment.

What does that tell us?

To me, it means that peace should be regained in Aceh. The people should restructure the local society and stop believing they have been neglected by the rest of Indonesian society. That notion led them to want independence.

We are one nation, when one of us is hurt, we all feel the pain.

-- The Jakarta Post