RI experts divided over aid benefits

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The unprecedented global response to the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster that devastated Indonesia and 11 other countries has been widely appreciated in Indonesia, but local analysts are still divided on the issue of whether the generous assistance offered by friendly countries would strengthen or weaken the country's foreign policy.

Just days after the tsunami catastrophe that killed more than 230,000 people (including missing persons) in Indonesia alone, scores of countries -- from the poorest to the richest -- raced to offer emergency aid to Indonesia and other countries.

Several countries have sent warships, jets, helicopters and other heavy military equipment together with thousands of military troops and medical teams to the disaster-stricken areas.

Approximately 10 days after the calamity, the world community's pledges had risen to more than US$7 billion of grants or loans for the affected countries. Some of this money will be channeled bilaterally and the rest through international organizations to Indonesia to finance the rehabilitation of Aceh.

Indonesia also received hundreds of thousands of tons aid in kind, including food, medicine, clothes, water and tents.

Since there is no free lunch in diplomacy, some analysts here have complained that the foreign aid might be with many strings attached or have ulterior motives, given Indonesia's size, abundant natural resources and geo-strategic location.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda last week brushed aside the arguments that the acceptance of foreign loans and grants could weaken Indonesia's position in bilateral relations with the donor countries.

"The strategy taken by the government (on this issue) is by advancing humanitarian diplomacy," Hassan told the House of Representatives Commission I for defense and foreign affairs.

Earlier, Arief Wicaksono, an international relations expert from 1945 University in Makassar, South Sulawesi, said that foreign donations could weaken Indonesia's diplomacy in the future.

"The government will face obstacles in its diplomacy with the donor countries. This will absolutely become a big burden for the ministry of foreign affairs," Arief said recently as quoted by Antara new agency.

He said that on one hand, the assistance was badly needed to cope with the disaster and rebuild the much-devastated infrastructure, but on the other, it could weaken Indonesia's position in implementing its foreign policy in international fora.

"The point is that the assistance provided bilaterally is risky and will affect Indonesia's diplomacy in the future," he asserted, while explaining that Indonesia would be indebted either morally or in monetary terms to those countries.

According to him, such problems can be avoided if all the aid could be channeled via multilateral groups such as international organizations under the UN agency or special institutions, which have been established to help the victims and the areas affected by the tsunami without being dominated by any particular country.

While, complementing Hassan's view, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) analyst Dewi Fortuna Anwar said the generosity of foreign countries was mainly based on humanitarian reasons.

"They (foreign countries) have shown their goodwill to help the victims of tsunami in Aceh. We welcome it as a humanitarian mission," Dewi, who worked as advisor to former president B.J. Habibie, told The Jakarta Post.

"As long as there is no corruption in the aid distribution, I really believe that the Indonesian government can run its diplomacy as usual, including on the critical issues. Indonesia's diplomacy will not get weaker because of the aid," she said.

Though the Australian government has donated lot of assistance in response to the disaster, said Dewi, the Indonesian government's stand on Canberra's controversial suggestions of possible preemptive strikes against terrorists in Indonesia would not diminish.

The Australian government pledged A$1 billion in aid to tsunami-affected countries, mainly Indonesia. Canberra also deployed six C-130 transport planes and the HMAS Kanimbla ship to Aceh.

Dewi said that the Indonesian government, however, had to perform in managing the money and the reconstruction effort to win the trust of donor countries.

The government hired international accounting firm Ernst & Young to audit all humanitarian assistance. The government will also release monthly figures for disaster relief.

Syamsul Hadi, executive director of the Center for International Relations at the University of Indonesia shared Dewi's opinion.

Syamsul said that there was nothing wrong in receiving foreign assistance. Because it was an unprecedented natural disaster.

"The government, in the name of humanitarianism, must facilitate them (foreign countries) to provide their assistance to our brothers and sisters in Aceh," Syamsul told the Post.

Indonesia is expected to receive the bulk of more than $7 billion in aid, loans and debt relief that world nations have pledged to tsunami relief efforts in the Indian Ocean region. But one problem is how to use those billions of dollars in a transparent manner to rebuild Aceh.