Residents pull together as officials waffle
Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
There has been one bright spot amid the terrible toll from the flooding that has swamped the capital in the past few days: Jakarta's population has united in an inspiring show of community and solidarity.
As national and city leaders wasted precious time pointing fingers and shifting blame, city residents, regardless of background or place of origin, pulled together to help out their fellow citizens.
Jakarta's sprawling metropolis has become a close-knit hive of concern, with people digging deep into their pockets and poring through their closets to help out flood victims.
Companies, from TV and radio stations to private businesses, have established collections of food, money, medicine and clothing to be donated to the needy.
In Bintaro, South Jakarta, youth groups and neighborhood officials are going door-to-door to collect donations to support kitchens at flood monitoring centers, which are working round the clock to provide meals of eggs and rice for people flooded out of their homes in surrounding areas.
In West Jakarta, a local hotel is also trying its best to be neighborly to residents who fled the floods in nearby Tanjung Duren and Greenville.
Hotel Mercure Slipi has provided tents, electricity from its generator, food, including 250 kgs of rice and instant noodles, and water to displaced residents sheltering behind the hotel.
"This can't be measured in millions of rupiah ... We don't want to show off, but we do want to show that we can help our neighbors," the hotel's public relations manager, Dian, said on Saturday.
The media, despite President Megawati Soekarnoputri's criticism of its reporting of the flooding, was among the first to act to help the community.
The country's largest daily, Kompas, raised more than Rp 60 million by Saturday, only one day after it opened a reader's forum for contributions for flood victims.
Universal praise has been accorded Radio Elshinta (90.05 FM) for providing information about flood-hit areas and for coordinating with institutions to help stranded members of the public. It also established Elshinta Humanity Care to collect donations.
"If somebody calls in for help, we ask the search-and-rescue team or the police to help. We relay information from the public to the public. That's our role in this," station manager Eddy Harsono said on Thursday.
One of those coming on board in recent days is Djakarta!. The magazine began a charity drive for low-income kampongs four months ago but the floods gave it added urgency, said editor-in- chief Daniel Ziv.
"The phone has been ringing continuously, and that's tremendously satisfying," Ziv said on Saturday as he ferried several readers to a local hypermarket to purchase basic foodstuffs.
"This has brought out the good in a lot of people. I've been impressed at how many people are involved. I know friends whose mothers spent the last 48 hours cooking noodles for kitchen."
The magazine, on Jl. Kendal 23, Menteng, Central Jakarta, does not accept cash donations but has been serving as a drop-off point for food and clothing, using its fleet of three vans for distribution. On Friday, it took food to about 500 street children stranded in a flooded area at Kali Malang, East Jakarta.
"Our original message for the drive asked for donations of Indomie, but we've found people don't have access to cooking materials, so cans of sardines, crackers, candles, kerosene lamps, clothing and water purifying tablets are really what are needed."
Ziv warned, however, that the public would be united by a less pleasant sentiment after the floodwaters had subsided.
"This is the triumph of ordinary people's will over the complete incompetence and lack of planning by the government. Whatever comes of the feel-good effect, this coming-together will be marred by tremendous resentment against the government for its incompetence ..." he said.