Alfian, Jakarta – Disaster and post-tsunami support focused on reconstruction and rebuilding in Aceh, Sumatra, has seen tsunami-survivors and others lose the will to work, a social scientist said Tuesday.
Rusydi Syahra, a researcher from the Center for Society and Cultural Studies at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said the tremendous tsunami aid given to Acehnese had "wiped out" the community's sense of independence.
"People have been continuously dependent on disaster aid and have lost their ability to stand on their own feet," Rusydi said.
He said various free support in the way of housing, clean water and health services, had unintentionally spoiled local people at all levels of society.
"One clear indication here has been a growing conviction among the survivors that they are entitled to those amenities indefinitely," Rusydi said.
He said several NGO's in Aceh had found it difficult to motivate local people to participate in activities that did not promise a salary. "Many Acehnese youth would rather be jobless than work with a limited salary, even though the numbers are reasonable for their level of education," Rusydi said.
He said these problems needed to be tackled soon to avoid any other problems when the NGOs finish their projects in Aceh.
"From the 120 large NGOs working in Aceh, 90 of them will leave the area in 2008. How will these people who are too dependent on aid money survive when the money is no longer available?" Rusydi was speaking at a seminar called "Indonesia's challenges to develop in the middle of disasters".
The seminar was part of an end-of-year reflection conducted by LIPI's Social Sciences and Humanities division.
Also speaking at the seminar was Sri Yanuarti, a researcher from LIPI's Center for Political Studies, who said Indonesia's past policies were not enough to handle major disasters such as the tsunami in Aceh.
"In previous regulations, it has been unclear which institution had the authority to manage resources or coordinate involved parties in disaster management efforts," she said.
She said Law No. 24/2007 on Disaster Management, which has not been implemented yet, contained some problems.
"The disaster management structure is still very centralistic with regional administrations having only very limited authority," Sri said.
"So far we have only established the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), while regional administrations have yet to establish their own local agencies for disaster management (BPBDs)."
Sri said it was the BPBDs which were able to handle disasters. "The BNPB only has the authority to manage coordination at a national level, it does not have the authority to handle technical issues at a regional level," she said. "If a disaster occurred in a particular area next week, who would take care it?"
Sri said regional administrations, with guidance from the central government, should immediately formulate and launch regional ordinances to establish BPBDs.