JAKARTA, 28 January 2005 — The unprecedented tsunami disaster in northern Sumatra is a crisis and an opportunity for new Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as he battles rebellion, corruption and poor governance.
Yudhoyono marks 100 days in office today, the aura now fading from being Indonesia’s first directly elected president.
But just as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington transformed the presidency of George W. Bush, the tsunami disaster may ultimately be seen as a turning point for Yudhoyono’s 5-year term.
“Indonesia clearly is in the spotlight now and can capitalize on the outpouring of sympathy and goodwill,” said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, political analyst at the Indonesia Institute of Sciences.
“But it’s also a challenge for government. It will be under much more scrutiny to ensure that the aid given will be used appropriately. So the issue of governance and corruption will be critical here.”
Governments, corporations and citizens from across the globe have pledged more than $7 billion to rebuild the countries hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami. The bulk of that is bound for Indonesia’s devastated Aceh province, where some 220,000 people are listed as dead or missing.
Yudhoyono won a decisive mandate of nearly 61 percent of the popular vote in the world’s fourth most populous country in last September’s election, the first time Indonesians could directly elect their leader.
Following his victory, the former general issued an ambitious 100-day agenda for a safe, just and prosperous Indonesia.
He promised immediate steps to end insurgencies in Aceh, in the far northwest of an archipelago that sprawls the length of the continental United States, and in Papua at the eastern end.
And he vowed to stamp out graft in a country rated among the five most corrupt in the world and to improve the investment climate.
Yudhoyono’s government says it is determined to spend the billions of dollars pledged for tsunami relief transparently and honestly — throwing a new, positive light on the country.
“The government is interested in creating a positive image. So this is a test case for the government,” Chief Social Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab told Reuters as he toured the ruins of Aceh’s capital, Banda Aceh.
The government has appointed international accounting firms to audit the relief money and anyone who pockets aid money will be punished, Shihab said.
There is also hope that international pressure, coupled with goodwill generated by the worst natural disaster in Indonesia’s history, could help Yudhoyono push forward a stalled peace process to end Aceh’s three-decade-old insurgency. Fears that clashes could disrupt the massive aid effort in Aceh, where almost all of Indonesia’s 228,000 dead and missing lived, prompted calls for a cease-fire between the several thousand separatist rebels hiding in jungles and the 40,000 soldiers deployed there. The president has sent a top-level ministerial team to Finland for talks this weekend with leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), evidence of a potential “peace dividend” created by the tsunami.
But conquering years of mistrust and enmity will be a tough task. “One only hopes there will be a breakthrough, but you can’t help being cynical about the prospects,” said Ken Conboy, a risk management consultant in Jakarta who closely follows military developments in Aceh.
