Perhaps Indonesia has learned from the 2004 Tsunami the cost of accepting foreign "assistance." Or am I
being too kind? They are talking about "using their own
resources" because they don't know how long this disaster will be and what
its ramifications are (as happened with the tsunami). Perhaps the government feels
the same way I do about the boatloads of unsupervised reconstruction aid having
done more harm than good. Is this a 10-year anniversary coincidence? A seismic shift, so to speak? Who
can say?
News: Indonesia
Foreign aid told to wait amid volcano eruption in
Indonesia
(www.devex.com) By Lean Alfred Santos
3 February
2014
Almost three months after its first volcanic
eruption in recent times, Mount Sinabung in northern Indonesia continues to
inflict damage after at least 14 more people, including children, died after
getting caught in the volcano’s scorching ash cloud on Saturday — a growing
figure as days go by, but something that shouldn’t alarm the international aid
community just yet.
That’s according to a United Nations official
based in the country, who stressed that the international development
community, despite its good intentions to always help out in times of disaster,
should in this case let the governments figure it out on its own first because
it knows best how to respond to the needs of their own people.
“In my opinion, the government is confident in
making use and exhaust its national resources. The government has appointed
several agencies including the disaster management to lead other ministries to
join in and work in the locations,” Ratnanto told Devex. “So as long as we
don’t hear from the government yet, international assistance will have to stand
by.”
He added: “When we convey to them [what’s
needed], they could easily meet the need. They could have it in their operational
plans … What [they should] do, I think for now, is monitor and wait whether in
one second or two they are needed.”
The almost 10,000 families displaced by the
volcanic eruption are currently housed about 10 km away from the crater,
according to Ratnanto, who said the the government fears more people may have
perished as bodies have been retrieved only from the safe areas inside the
exclusion zone.
“The restriction is the path of the lava flow, so
they can only retrace and retrieve the bodies in the safest place [not within
the 5 km radius considered as the hazard zone],” he explained.
Finding one’s place
So far, a handful of international organizations,
including U.N. agencies like the World
Food Program and UNICEF,
have been active in helping the displaced by the eruption, but all through
previously established programs in collaboration with government ministries.
“What the United Nations [and other groups] are
doing is support the resources in the different areas affected because the
government, so far, has not asked for international assistance considering that
some international agencies have local partners. The government is so far
responding to the emergency,” he said.
This is in contrast with what happened three
months ago in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, where the
devastation was much more severe and extended. In addition, in that case the
storm itself was gone after a day, whereas Mount Sinabung continues to threaten
local communities with further eruptions.
Ratnanto explained this situation makes it harder
for the international community to fully commit and — in principle — commit to
a specific amount of aid.
“It will be different than if you see Haiyan in
the Philippines that some of the international groups and U.N. agencies are
free to provide assistance, no. Indirectly, the U.N. agencies, at this moment,
are doing that while monitoring the situation and are standing by,” he noted.
“This is a slow-moving disaster. We cannot predict when it will end.”
But, at the end of the day, it’s all about
finding one’s right place in the grander scheme of the relief and
rehabilitation operations. Ratnanto said waiting for the call for help is
tantamount to respecting the sovereignty and capacity of a nation as well as
being humble to admit that people — ideally — know best how they will recover
from the tragedy.
“This is so because it’s political really. First
because the president already gave directions to the ministries. We need to
allow the government to implement what the instructions are. We cannot just
simply jump in. No, we cannot. So we let them do and we are supporting them,”
he concluded.
