The Aceh reconstruction plan leaves Acehnese illiterate

The Aceh reconstruction plan leaves Acehnese illiterate
JP/6/WANDI

Aceh reconstruction plan leaves Acehnese illiterate

Aguswandi
London

Post-tsunami reconstruction in Aceh is difficult work. It is
not made any easier by the public's widespread lack of access to
information about the process. Many local activists and local
people I have spoken with say that many international groups and
even the government seem to be more accountable to their donors
and international bodies than to the Acehnese.

On May 13, the newly established Aceh Reconstruction and
Rehabiliation Authority (BRR), set up to oversee the post-tsunami
reconstruction process, held its first meeting with local and
international NGOs working in Aceh. It was a meeting to
communicate their presence and their mandate in Aceh. This was a
positive initiative in order to share their plans as widely as
possible.

The introduction to the meeting was made in English by Kuntoro
Mangkusubrata, the chairman of BRR. A friend who attended the
meeting assumed that English would only be used for the
introduction. However, in the following sessions, during which
the participants divided into small groups for discussion,
English was still being used as the language of communication.

The friend, an NGO activist, who has good English, started to
speak in Bahasa Indonesia, to encourage the other participants to
speak in their own language. Yet, the many foreign workers
attending the workshop continued to converse in English. This
left many Acehnese participants only able to grasp the "yes and
no" of the discussions.

This week I attended the House of Representatives Civic
Information Fair in Senayan. The fair was supposed to provide
information and discussions about work being carried out in Aceh.
Not only did visitors get very little information, but many of
them were disappointed to see that most of the representatives
standing by their organizations' stalls were too junior or too
lacking in in-depth knowledge to explain what their organizations
were doing in Aceh.

This was especially true of UN agencies and some international
NGOs. Among the international agencies, only OXFAM saw fit to
send senior staff to stand at their stall and share information
about their work in Aceh.

This picture of international agencies at the fair contrasted
sharply with many of the local NGOs, who appeared more serious in
providing information on their work in Aceh. Save Emergency for
Aceh (SEFA) and the Joint Committee for Aceh (KBKA), two main
local NGOs, made sure that their directors represented the
organizations at the fair.

Then I visited the United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) desk. Out of all the organizations
at the fair, it was OCHA that had the most comprehensive
information. A young woman standing at the stall showed visitors
their wonderful electronic information, ranging from a blueprint
to assessments that had been provided. She said very
enthusiastically that the public could also access this
information on the OCHA website. I walked away noting the good
range of information that they had, but wondering how local
people without access to a computer, let alone the Internet, were
going to access this information, which of course was all written
in English.

These experiences have been confirmed by a tsunami survivor,
Tengku Malkun. Like many Acehnese affected by the tsunami, he is
living in a camp for displaced persons. When I told him the
government has prepared a blueprint and that it had all sorts of
plans for the reconstruction of Aceh, Malkun said he did not know
anything about these plans.

Not a single group had gone to explain to him and the many
other people in the camp anything about the reconstruction
process and how they could be a part of these plans that would
affect their future. This is the case with many other Acehnese.
They are not being informed enough about what is going on, nor
are any groups coming to explain in simple language the practical
meanings of the bold blueprint produced last month.

The establishment of the BRR is good move. It has a direct
reporting line to the President and can avoid the all too common
complex bureaucracy of other institutions. We also hope the BRR
will counteract the overlapping power structures in Aceh, which
are the result of the endless impositions of military operations
in the region.

Locals also hope that the establishment of the agency will
transform the way Jakarta is represented in Aceh. The appointment
of a clean bureaucrat for the region is welcomed. However, the
challenge for the BRR is to provide the public with full and
accurate information.

International groups should also be more proactive in
explaining their work to the Acehnese in an accessible manner,
and to engage more with ordinary people. Many groups have come to
meet Acehnese, endless interviews and assessments have been
carried out and too many consultants have been hired at very high
salaries to identify the needs of the Acehnese. Not many of these
groups have come back to explain in an understandable manner what
plans they have developed.

The lack of information for locals contravenes accepted
international standards, including the Humanitarian Charter and
Minimum Standards Response. The Humanitarian Charter 2004 clearly
states that women and men of all ages affected by disasters,
including vulnerable groups, must receive information about
assistance programs, and be given the opportunity to speak with
assistance agencies at all stages of the project cycle. So far
this seems not to be the case in Aceh.

The writer is an Acehnese human rights advocate working for
TAPOL London. He can be contacted at agus_smur@hotmail.com.