State of emergency now
State of emergency now
If the government is so keen to impose a state of emergency in
Aceh, now is the best time to do it. While at it, the government
should also declare a state of emergency in North Sumatra and
West Sumatra. We are of course talking about a different kind of
state of emergency, not the kind that unleashes the military to
resume its repressive measures or brutal attacks on innocent
civilians in Aceh, but the kind which hopefully can draw national
and international attention to the plight of people affected by
devastating floods and landslides in Sumatra.
Jakarta's response to news of the major natural disasters
which have afflicted the three provinces in Sumatra this past
week is far from satisfactory. Like other responses to earlier
political and economic crises, there was a disturbing air of
"business as usual" among Jakarta's elite. While thousands of
people in Sumatra are fighting for their survival in floods and
landslides, the political elite has been fighting each other,
bickering mostly over petty issues, for their political survival.
Floods and landslides have devastated a large part of Sumatra,
from the central to the upper half of the island. By Thursday
morning, the total death toll in West Sumatra, North Sumatra and
Aceh exceeded 100. Tens of thousands of others have been
displaced. Many towns and villages in West Sumatra remain cut off
from the rest of the world.
The costs of natural disasters have reached catastrophic
proportions. Help in the meantime has been slow in coming. Apart
from problems with logistics support, the central and local
administrations are simply not properly stocked with supplies of
food, medicine and other things needed to deal with major
emergencies.
What good would a declaration of a state of emergency in the
three Sumatran provinces do? A lot. To start with, it would end
this "business as usual" attitude of people in Jakarta. It would
startle the largely indifferent government to act, hopefully with
the right kind of response. It would immediately elevate the
problem, particularly the human cost caused by the disasters, to
the national political agenda and hopefully it would prompt the
political elite to put aside their petty bickering and start
addressing the real problems the nation is currently facing.
A declaration of a state of emergency would mean greater
coordination at the national and regional levels in the way
relief supplies are collected and distributed. A state of
emergency would delineate clear lines of responsibility among the
various government officials and agencies, and therefore prevent
the confusion that seems to always reign each time Indonesia is
faced with this kind of emergency situation.
We can still recall the farce over the relief operation after
the earthquake in Bengkulu early this year, such as when well-
meaning foreign paramedics were turned away because Indonesia was
not prepared to accept their presence. Many foreign governments
and local and international agencies also did not know where and
how to channel their aid then.
The government may be in short supply of aid, but, as with all
other human tragedies, there is never a shortage of people in
this country and abroad who are willing to lend a hand. Some
private organizations, including big newspapers such as Kompas,
have started a fund-raising campaign to help victims of the
Sumatra disasters. A state of emergency by the government would
better coordinate these various private initiatives, and prevent
the overlapping of various works in the field.
The administration, with the support of the House of
Representatives, should get into the habit of declaring a state
of emergency when and where it matters most. Natural disasters of
catastrophic proportions like we have seen in Sumatra this week
certainly merit the consideration of such a status. To people in
the afflicted area, it could mean the difference between life and
death.