Who to give the money to in Aceh
I've just spent about ten days up in Aceh in one of the Lhoknga camp sites in an attempt to come up with some projects that will get a few people up and running into a new livelihood. We all know these people have lost everything -- family, house, community, social standing and livelihood.
We have about Rp 100 million that was raised by hashers who supported a run in Medan at the end of January 2005 and this money must be spent on something in Aceh. Since then the mainly Chinese committee (who must decide where to spend this money), has dithered and dallied about what to do. They didn't like my projects because they were clearly directed toward helping individuals as their culture (losing face) and their strong belief in corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) dominated their thinking.
Ironically, it is individuals who need to be helped and of course there are thousands of them. The committee members are worried about losing face as to give to individuals (who have no great standing anywhere in this country) will not bring forward the right response from donors -- who are mostly Chinese.
How shallow and misguided can people be, because this money is in fact all about helping people (individuals) and nothing at all to do with how a committee will look in the eyes of donors? Sure it must not be wasted, but to give this amount to a large NGO (the more preferred Chinese route) will surely see about 40 percent of that cash going down the drain to inflated administration costs. People are perhaps brainwashed into thinking that anything that means giving something to someone for nothing is a really bad idea, and yet that is exactly what is needed.
There is also a committee problem about having the responsibility to spend this money -- hence the dithering and the lack of projects on the table. What people need in Aceh is a helping hand and now, and although a small organization like an Indonesian hash cannot help everyone, it can in fact help a few individuals who have lost everything in their lives.
I have to admit that I was disappointed and somewhat embarrassed to be at that committee meeting, not only because of the outcome, but more because its members did not have the courtesy to really listen.
DAVID WALLIS Medan, North Sumatra