INDONESIA: NATURAL DISASTERS OR MASS MURDER?
By Andre Vltchek
Another day, another unnecessary loss of lives: 16 people killed and 16
still missing in floods and landslides on a small island Tahuna off
Indonesia's Sulawesi.
At an alarming rate, Indonesia is replacing Bangladesh and India as
the most
disaster-prone nation on earth. Whenever the word Indonesia appears on
the
list of headlines on Yahoo news, chances are that another enormous and
unnecessary tragedy occurred on one of the islands of this sprawling
archipelago.
Airplanes are disappearing or sliding off the runways, ferries are
sinking
or simply decomposing on the high seas, trains crash or get derailed at
average rate of one per week, illegal passengers falling through the
rusty
roofs. Illegal garbage dumps bury under its stinking content desperate
communities of scavengers. Landslides are taking carton-like houses to
the
ravines; earthquakes and tidal waves are destroying coastal cities and
villages. Forest fires from Sumatra are choking huge area of Southeast
Asia.
The scope of disasters is unprecedented and it is absurd to discount them
simply as nation's bad luck or as the wrath of gods or the nature.
Corruption, incompetence and simple indifference of ruling elites and
government officials are mostly to blame. It is poverty, lack of public
projects and kleptomania that kills hundreds of thousands of desperate
Indonesian men, women and children.
Since 1965 US-sponsored military coup that deposed Sukarno, installing a
military regime of staunch anti-communist and corrupt pro-market dictator
Suharto, Indonesia escapes serious scrutiny by the western media and
governments. After Suharto stepped down in 1998, it is being hailed by
mass
media as emerging and increasingly tolerant democracy.
Some of these disasters are man-made; almost all of them are
preventable. At
closer scrutiny it becomes obvious that people die due to almost
non-existent prevention, lack of education (Indonesia has the third
lowest
spending on education as percentage of its GDP, after Equatorial
Guinea and
Ecuador) and savage pro-market economic system which allows enrichment of
very few at the expense of the majority which lives under 2 dollars a
day.
Conclusions can be terrifying casting light on the way the present-day
Indonesian society functions. However, to avoid this exposure would
doubtlessly lead to further loss of precious lives of hundreds of
thousands
of people.
Indonesia is profit-driven to the extreme. It is also one of the most
corrupt nations on the face of the earth. And there seems to be no
immediate
profit to be made from implementing preventive measures. Dams and
anti-tsunami walls are almost everywhere considered to be public works
and
exactly this word - public - had almost disappeared from the lexicon of
those who make decisions in Indonesia. Short-term profit for particular
group of individuals is given much higher priority than long-term
gains for
the entire nation. Moral collapse of the nation is reflected in the
scale of
values: corrupt but rich individuals command incomparably higher respect
than those who are honest but poor.
Ferries are sinking not "because of high winds and waves"; they sink
because
they are overcrowded and badly maintained, or more precisely because they
are allowed to be overcrowded and badly maintained. Everything is for
sale,
even the safety of thousands of passengers. Companies care only about
their
profits, while government inspectors are mainly interested in bribes.
Recent
well publicized sinking of Senopati Nusantara killed hundreds of
people, but
it was just one of hundreds of maritime disasters that occur in Indonesia
each year. While there are no exact statistics available (for predictable
reasons, Indonesian government makes sure to avoid publishing
comprehensive
comparative statistics), some maritime routes lose 3 or more vessels a
year.
Indonesian airline industry has one of the worst safety records in the
world. Since 1997, at least 666 people died in 8 major separate airplane
crashes in Indonesia. Some of the pilots are so badly trained that planes
often skip off the runway, miss runway altogether or land in the
middle of
it. Maintenance is another issue: flaps often don't function properly,
wheels cannot get in after take-off, seldom changed tires have
tendency to
blow up upon touch down. It is a mystery how do some airplanes -
particularly old Boeings 737s flown by almost all Indonesian airlines
- make
it through the inspections.
After consulting with local civil aviation officials (who obviously do
not
want to be identified), your correspondent learned that the navigation
systems at several major Indonesian airports are in disastrous state,
particularly those at Makassar in Sulawesi and Medan in Sumatra.
On average, there is one deadly train accident every six days in
Indonesia,
many caused by the lack of gates at its 8.000 level crossings. In
comparison
Malaysia had no fatal accident for 13 years up to 2005 (last year for
which
statistics are available).
Despite the fact that Indonesia has relatively small number of cars per
capita, its roads are the "most used" of any networks in the world
(second
only to Hong Kong which is not a country): 5.7 million vehicle-km per
year
of road network (2003, The Economist World in Figures, 2007 Edition).
Despite this epic congestion and generally slow pace of traffic, 80 plus
people die on average every day on Indonesian road, mostly due to the
terrible state of the infrastructure and poor law-enforcement,
according to
The Financial Times.
Earthquakes alone do not kill people. Poor construction of houses and
buildings are the culprits, together with the lack of preventive measures
and preventive education. It is well known fact that Indonesia is
prone to
natural disasters; that it is located on so called ring of fire. But the
poor can count on no massive public housing projects (like those in
neighboring Malaysia), which could withstand earthquakes. Almost each
family
is on its own: it has to design and build its own dwelling. Major
earthquakes kill hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, leaving
hundreds
of thousand homeless. At least 5.800 people died and 36.000 were
injured on
May 27, 2006 during 6.3-magnitute earthquake which hit central Java near
historic city of Yogyakarta. Primitive infrastructure, inadequate medical
facilities and corruption in distribution of aid are to blame for
unacceptably high number of casualties after each major tremor.
Illegal logging and deforestation are the main reasons for the
landslides.
It is well known who is responsible for the forest fires in Sumatra and
elsewhere, but officials are reluctant to make arrests, as those
responsible
for de-forestation are often rich and well connected in the country where
even justice is for sale. There are countless solutions to this problem,
including law-enforcement, inspections and attempt to provide alternative
means for livelihood to those communities that are so desperate that they
are literally forced to participate in digging their own graves by
destroying environment that is in return annihilating entire communities.
But almost nothing is done, as illegal logging is huge and lucrative
business that can grease hundreds of willing palms.
Last month, dozens of people were killed in landslides and flush
floods in
north of Sumatra Island, which forced some 400.000 people to flee their
homes. In June 2006, floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains
killed
more than 200 people in south Sulawesi province.
Tidal wave, known as tsunami, killed more than 126.000 people in Aceh
province in December 2004. Not only was response of Indonesian government
and military forces inexcusably slow and inadequate, large part of
massive
foreign aid disappeared in corruption. Instead of helping victims, many
members of Indonesian military were extorting bribes from relief agencies
and destroying precious supplies or drinking water and food in case that
bribes were not paid. In a scandalous land-grab sponsored by the
government,
many victims were prevented from returning to their own land while
children
were forcefully separated from their parents (who lost birth certificates
during the tragedy) and "adopted" by religious organizations; some
falling
victims to human trafficking. More than two years after this devastating
tragedy, hundreds of thousands are living in temporary housing.
Many victims of yet another tsunami, which hit the coast of southern
Java in
July 17, 2006, are still waiting for any substantial help. At official
count, 600 people died, but the real number was almost certainly much
higher. Indonesian officials received early warning from Japan but
refused
to act, later claiming that there was not much they could do, as the area
was not equipped with the sirens or loudspeakers.
Indonesia often suffers from some man-made disasters beyond any
comprehension and comparison. Recent "mud flood" inundated entire
villages
right outside Surabaya. It occurred due to inadequate safety
procedures of a
gas exploration company (co-owned by one of the cabinet ministers). This
"accident" displaced more than 10.000 people, covering over 1.000
acres of
land with hot mud, destroying the only motorway of Surabaya as well as
the
major railway line. Garbage buried entire communities of poor
scavengers at
illegal dumping site outside Bandung. There are many more cases of
similar
nature, but complete list would require too much space - probably entire
book dedicated to the subject.
The question is when will Indonesian people say that enough is enough and
when will they demand accountability and justice, exact statistics and
concrete blueprint for solutions? In almost any other country, two recent
disasters - grizzly sinking of Senopati Nusantara and "disappearance" of
Adam Air Boeing 737 with 102 people on board - would be more than
enough to
force cabinet ministers to resign. In Indonesia, these tragedies are seen
(or presented) as yet another misfortune without holding anyone
responsible
or accountable.
Indonesian press and mass media are reporting each and every disaster in
details. But they are failing to establish that what is happening
there is
extraordinary and intolerable, that there is probably no other major
country
in the world that is experiencing such unnecessary and devastating
loss of
human lives due to disasters that are either man-made or easily
preventable.
To link enormous number of lost human lives in countless disasters with
corruption and socio-economic system is determinately discouraged.
Jakarta
Post, leading daily newspaper in Indonesia, recently suppressed this
commentary, refusing to publish it on its pages.
Since December 2004, Indonesia has lost around 200 thousand people in
various disasters, not counting car accidents and military conflicts
ranging
all over its archipelago. That's more than Iraq lost in the same
period of
time, more than Sri Lanka or Peru lost during their long civil wars.
Indeed,
many Indonesians are experiencing life, which is as dangerous and
hazardous
as that in the war-torn parts of the world. Most of them don't realize
it,
as comparative statistics are not available or are suppressed.
Indonesia is poor, but it is still in the position to protect some of its
most vulnerable citizens. The main problem is that there is no political
will. There is plenty of concrete and bricks to build dams and walls
against
tsunamis, to reinforce the hills around the towns, which are in danger of
being buried by the landslides. One just has to look around Jakarta where
dozens of unnecessary new shopping malls are growing in several
locations,
where kitschy palaces of corrupt officials cover acres of land.
Unwillingness to deal with the problems has roots mostly in corruption.
Local companies and officials developed unique ability to make profits
from
everything, even from disasters and from the suffering of millions of
fellow
citizens. In simplified terms, corruption is stealing from the public.
But
when the toll has to be calculated in hundreds of thousands of lost human
lives, it becomes mass murder.
Andre Vltchek: novelist, journalist and filmmaker, co-founder of Mainstay
Press (www.mainstaypress. org), senior Fellow at Oakland Institute
(www.oaklandinstitut e.org). He presently resides and works in
Southeast Asia
and South Pacific and can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] net
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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