Refleksi : Pemerintah sedang sibuk menghitung uang sambil menunggu tanda tangan SBY untuk mentransfer uang melalui Bank Century ke Padang. Para penderita gempa bumi harap sabar, subur, kata sumber tidak resmi. Insyaalloh uang bantuan tidak dimakan tikus-tikus dan rayab jahat yang berkerumun disekitar meja kekuasaan.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/11/2009112734133432910.html Friday, November 27, 2009 07:15 Mecca time, 04:15 GMT Quake-hit Padang waits for aid Many residents around the devastated city say they have received no government help Almost two months after a deadly earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, thousands of people are still waiting for assistance so they can begin rebuilding. More than 1,000 people were killed in and around the city of Padang when the quake struck. Almost 70,000 commercial buildings and houses were seriously damaged or destroyed, but so far the Indonesian government has not provided a cent for reconstruction. Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay was in Padang in the immediate hours after the quake and returned to the city to assess the situation. In the rural areas surrounding Padang, life in a disaster zone goes on. In almost two months, little has changed for those affected by September's magnitude 7.9 earthquake. Thousands of homes and commercial buildings in and around Padang were reduced to rubble It is almost as if the disaster has just occurred, with many people sitting around reflecting on what has happened to their lives and their homes. Most of the sites where there were once houses and schools remain untouched and the locals are still waiting for government assistance. Residents told us they had been visited once by the authorities who gave out food packs, but since then it has been charity organisations who have provided the sole assistance. What they need now is money to begin rebuilding. In a clear sign of the desperate situation, an Indonesian charity has in recent weeks started building temporary homes that it says will last for a year. Government 'too slow' Consisting of tarpaulin sheeting and wooden frames, the workers can build the tent-like structures in an hour, and they say they have made 500 in the last 3 weeks. The chief architect on the job says the government has been too slow to help its people. "This was a very widespread disaster but the government should have moved faster," said Mohammed Yassin. "We're helping them now, but hopefully in the future the government will act quicker to build emergency housing." A few aid groups have begun to build temporary homes Local authorities have requested around $37m for reconstruction from the government in Jakarta, but as yet it has not arrived. Marlis Rachman, the governor of Western Sumatra province, doesn't expect to see the money any time soon. "We want it to be done faster," he says, "but there's a lot of bureaucracy in Indonesia because we need the approval of parliament, so we think we'll get the money in May 2010." In the countryside, many people can't wait until May next year to start rebuilding their lives, so they have taken matters into their own hands, constructing more traditional wooden houses, instead of poorly constructed brick homes, many of which collapsed in the quake. In the provincial capital Padang, it's believed most of the commercial buildings that collapsed were poorly built. There are laws governing construction standards, but they are rarely enforced and it's widely known that officials have in the past been bought off so that building owners and developers can cut corners on construction materials and save money. Avoidable tragedy Two months on from the quake, there are still tales emerging of tragedy that could have been avoided. Despite frequent earthquakes, laws on construction standards are rarely enforced Yoakim Koba and his wife lost their youngest daughter, Clemtine, in the quake when the commercial building next door to their home collapsed. She was sitting outside at the time and when the shaking started, she ran to the small gap between the buildings but the wall came tumbling down upon her. Clemtine, 19, was studying to become a pharmacist. She died in hospital 3 hours after the earthquake from head injuries. Her grieving father claims the motorbike warehouse next door, should never have been allowed to be built so close to their home, blaming a lack of town planning for his daughter's death. Even now, the front half of the building is still standing, but boasts substantial damage. There are workers hastily patching up the cracks. One external wall is bent outwards, leaning perilously close to Yoakim's neighbours, who may now be considering a change of address. Yoakim himself was not at home when his daughter was buried in the rubble. He was at work, teaching at a language school, which also collapsed, and is now a mound of twisted metal and concrete. He was unhurt in the quake, and pulled many of his students and fellow teaches to safety. Risking lives Eleven were not so lucky, and perished when the roof caved in. Yoakim Koba lost his youngest daughter in the quake The building was closed for 6 months in 2007 to have earthquake strengthening work conducted on it - work that clearly was not anywhere near enough. Yoakim says building standards must be improved. "They need to be consistent when it comes to the construction of buildings," he says. "They have to be strict about the planning, execution and the end product, if they're not, this is the risk they take." People's lives should not be bargained with, he says, so local authorities have to get tough on corruption. All around the city there are patch up jobs going on, but some buildings clearly need more than that. We visited one multi-storey office block which is being fixed, but on the face of it, appears to have suffered severe structural damage. The staff are working out the back in shipping containers, and they told us they are scared of returning to work inside a building they think is unsafe. Amidst the ruined buildings and shattered lives of Padang, there are though some positive signs. The local government and a Jakarta-based charity have started building a school it claims will be able to withstand a magnitude 9 quake, complete with a helicopter pad and an evacuation centre for people to assemble if there is a tsunami. But those in the area who still haven't started picking up the pieces from September's disaster, cannot afford to build with such technology. They simply want enough cash for a roof over their heads, and they hope the day of a magnitude 9 earthquake never arrives. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
