Tsunami elicits empathetic response from world leaders

Tsunami elicits empathetic response from world leaders

Harry Bhaskara, Jakarta

As soon as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono became president on Oct.
20, 2004, people saddled him with an absurd hope: that his
promised changes would be realized within his first 100 days of
office. Topping his list of promises was the curbing of
corruption.

But now, with the tsunami disaster, people will more than
likely forget this absurdity come Jan. 28, when the 100 days
falls due. With good reason, the entire nation remains in a state
of astonishment at the colossal proportions of what happened on
Dec. 26.

The disaster has brought nations together. And happens in
times of crisis, it has also spurred leaders of true quality into
action.

Only days after the tsunami, Singapore Prime Minister Lee
Hsien Loong called Susilo on the phone and proposed a gathering
of Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) leaders. In
Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder proposed a debt moratorium
for Indonesia. In Jakarta, Susilo opened up the hitherto-closed
province of Aceh to humanitarian aid workers from a host of
different countries.

What followed is now history. Susilo swiftly followed up on
Lee's phone call to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and an
international tsunami summit was held in Jakarta on Jan. 6. In
the meantime, humanitarian aid from many nations, including the
U.S., Australia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, flooded into Aceh.
Talks concerning debt moratoria snowballed, reaching its peak at
the recent Paris Club meeting. An ASEAN summit is planned to be
held in Jakarta this week.

PM Lee could have quite easily just sat on his hands in
Singapore, as his country not directly affected by the tsunami;
Susilo could have maintained Aceh as a closed territory; and
Chancellor Schroeder with ease could have ignored the tragedy.

But their prompt actions significantly reduced the sufferings
of the Acehnese and hence Indonesia. With more than US$6 billion
in pledges of financial aid from the international community,
Indonesia now has the means to reconstruct its devastated
province. Four million Acehnese saw a ray of hope for their
future.

Prior to the disaster, Aceh had been a closed territory.
Government troops had been fighting 3,000 rebels -- now reduced
to 2,000 -- in a province half the size of South Korea.

Many must have hoped that Susilo would be the one to announce
the cancellation of the government's new year parties, with the
nation being in a state of deep grief, but it was rather
Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi who did so elegantly,
despite the number of victims in Malaysia (less than 100) being
dwarfed by Indonesia's (115,000 plus).

When he visited Aceh earlier this month, Badawi also promised
to finance the education of 38,000 Acehnese children, a gesture
of deep empathy from a neighboring leader. The tsunami has made
about 50,000 Acehnese children orphans.

The few foreign leaders mentioned here represent only the tip
of the iceberg in terms of all the leaders, regional and
international, who have made genuine contributions to lighten
Indonesia's sorrow, stemming from their deep sympathy for the
country.

This does not mean that everything will be all right. The real
work has just begun. The real challenges lie ahead. And these
challenges will very likely highlight many of Indonesia's own
domestic political shortcomings.

Policies verging on the absurd, like restrictions on foreign
humanitarian aid workers, are starting to be bandied about. Other
absurdities are bound come to the fore in the near future that
will in all likelihood sabotage the government's effort in
rehabilitating Indonesia's western-most province.

To be fair to Susilo, his is a fledgling government with a
legacy of a state in crisis. Without the tsunami, he already had
a massive backlog of issues to resolve. Among them, and which are
pertinent to Aceh, was the streamlining of central and local
government mechanisms, incomplete separation of police and the
military, and ethnic and religious conflicts. Being a new
government, Susilo also needs to solidify his teamwork with Vice
President Jusuf Kalla. The recent issuance of a vice presidential
decree, unprecedented in Indonesia's history, being a case in
point.

Susilo, who is facing a real test of his commitment to reform,
now has in his hands a chance to turn calamity into opportunity.

Susilo has made a good start by opening up the province. A
further successful response to the challenge will jump start him
into realizing his many promises of change and reform for the
nation as a whole. He has already missed a golden opportunity to
resolve the Aceh insurgency issue in November last year, when he
approved the continuation of the so-called "civil emergency" in
Aceh. He must not miss this one.

The author is a staff writer of The Jakarta Post.