Indra Harsaputra and ID Nugroho, Sidoarjo – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has issued a series of instructions to speed up compensation for people displaced by the mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java.
The instructions were announced during a press conference late Tuesday, the second day of Yudhoyono's three-day tour of East Java to look into how displaced residents have been compensated.
The company at the heart of the disaster, Lapindo Brantas Inc., was ordered to immediately pay 20 percent of the compensation due to 522 families whose ownership of mudflow-affected land and homes has been verified.
The company was also instructed to pay 20 percent of the compensation due to some 10,000 other families between July 1 and Sept. 14, while at the same time working to verify their land and building ownership claims.
Yudhoyono instructed Lapindo to distribute Rp 100 billion each week for this purpose, and told the local land office to verify the land and home ownership claims of at least 100 families a week. The remaining 80 percent of the compensation should be paid before 2009, the President said.
"I also want the regent and governor to carefully and properly deal with the problem of the 766 families who are still living in shelters," Yudhoyono said, referring to Sidoarjo Regent Win Hendarso and East Java Governor Imam Utomo.
The press conference was held after a closed-door meeting with the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency (BPLS), local officials and Lapindo executives at the Juanda air base in Surabaya.
Yudhoyono also instructed the mudflow agency to continue its efforts to contain the sea of spilled mud and to stop the mudflow. He set a 2007 deadline for the acquisition of the land that will be needed to rebuild destroyed infrastructure, to allow construction to begin in 2008.
Yudhoyono traveled to Sidoarjo after meeting with representatives of mudflow victims at his private residence in Bogor on Sunday.
The President was reportedly upset during the meeting to learn he had been mistakenly led to believe the compensation process was running smoothly. He promised the victims he would find out why, despite a presidential order, many mudflow victims had yet to receive any compensation.
Yudhoyono is being accompanied on his trip by a number of ministers, including Public Works Minister Joko Kirmanto, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Social Services Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro.
At Pasar Baru Porong market in Sidoarjo, where many mudflow victims have taken shelter for the past year, 60-year-old Zubaidah dressed up Tuesday in anticipation of meeting the President.
The resident of inundated Renokenongo village, along with all the other victims housed at the market, was disappointed as Yudhoyono failed to visit the market, instead touring the disaster area by helicopter.
"When we met, I wanted to tell him all of the problems I am facing here. How we live in misery at the shelter and are always being played around with by Lapindo. We want the President to punish Lapindo," she said.
Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said the President toured the disaster zone by helicopter to get a complete view of the area and the latest developments in dealing with the mudflow.
The House of Representatives hopes to officially question the President over the administration's handling of the mudflow. The results of the questioning, officially called interpellation, could lead to a full House inquiry into the matter.
The results of such an inquiry could lead to the President's impeachment, though no House member has come out and said this is a possibility.
Mallarangeng said the President did not make the trip to Sidoarjo to avoid the House questioning. "This (trip) is not intended to avoid interpellation because the government is ready to answer all questions regarding this (mudflow) problem," he said.