Why is disaster management in Indonesia still reactive?

Jakarta — Whenever disasters strike in various regions of Indonesia, the government acts quickly to distribute aid, evacuate victims, and construct temporary housing for affected residents. Yet behind these swift responses, a more fundamental question arises: why does disaster management policy in Indonesia still appear reactive, moving only after disasters occur?

Several parties argue that the country’s disaster management approach remains overly focused on emergency response, while mitigation and prevention have not become top priorities in development policy.

Selly Andriany Gantina, a member of Commission VIII of the Indonesian House of Representatives from the PDI-P faction, said disaster budgets have so far been more allocated to post-disaster responses. According to Selly, this approach makes disaster countermeasures tend to be reactive.

In modern disaster governance, mitigation and prevention are considered more effective strategies to reduce disaster risk.

‘On that basis, the Commission VIII DPR RI urges national budget policies to strengthen risk-based mitigation spending, such as strengthening early warning systems, land-use planning that is sensitive to disaster risk, the construction of disaster-resilient infrastructure, and public education and preparedness in high-risk areas,’ she said.

Selly argued that strengthening mitigation is not only important for public safety but also for the efficiency of state spending. ‘In addition to being strategically valuable because every rupiah allocated to prevention saves larger emergency response and rehabilitation costs later on. This policy saves more lives and reduces the social-economic losses of communities,’ she said.

Therefore, she argues, the disaster paradigm in Indonesia needs to change. ‘In other words, our disaster mindset must shift from simply responding to disasters to anticipating risks (preventive),’ Selly said.