There are two big “whys” to the latest devastating earthquake to hit the Indonesian province of Aceh. The first is easily answered but the second is not. Historically Aceh is notoriously prone to seismic activity. In December 2004, no less than 170,000 people in the province perished in a tsunami generated by an earthquake immediately off the coast.
This latest quake is feared to have killed more than a hundred, injured thousands and made many thousands homeless. Rescue workers have been struggling to bring some sort of assistance and order to the chaos caused by the 6.5 magnitude quake and the inevitable dangerous aftershocks.
Aceh’s people can draw upon a proud history. Islam is widely regarded to have arrived in Indonesia in the thirteenth century in the Kingdoms of Fansur and Lamuri that now make up the province. Over the next 400 years, Aceh grew steadily to become a highly prosperous and influential Sultanate. It indeed laid the foundations for modern Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country. It is also rich in natural resources with very substantial natural gas reserves.
This is what makes the second “why” so much harder to answer. Given the constant vulnerability of this nominally wealthy part of Indonesia to natural disasters and given the appalling consequences of the 2004 tsunami, it is hard to understand why Aceh was not better prepared for Wednesday’s devastating earthquake in what is now known as the Pidie Jaya regency in Sumatra. It had already experienced several earthquakes this year. It is clear that this week, buildings, some of them modern, collapsed like cards. There have also been heartrending reports of people scrabbling with their bare hands in the ruins, because emergency equipment was not readily available.
The government in Jakarta will protest that it is doing all that it can. Close to 2,000 soldiers and police personnel are assisting the survivors in the worst hit areas. But there are those, not least in Aceh, who were disappointed that President Joko Widodo did not immediately scrap his schedule and rush to the stricken province. It could, with some justice, be argued that such a visit would be dismissed by critics as a mere “photo opportunity” that tied up valuable security resources at a time when they are needed elsewhere. Though it was announced yesterday that Widodo was scheduled to visit, aides said that initially it was more important that he stay back and oversee the efforts to bring succor to the population in the stricken province.
The next few days constitute the “golden period” when survivors might still be pulled from the wreckage. But what is of far greater importance is what happens when this latest emergency is over. It seems clear that building standards are not enforced with sufficient vigor. Modern structures have to be designed and constructed so that they will survive earthquakes.
The death and destruction caused in Aceh’s latest quake must serve as a wake-up call. President Widodo should ensure the implementation of proper construction standards so that houses, offices, market halls and even mosques (14 were damaged on Wednesday) do not tumble down. The people of Aceh have long complained that they have not benefited properly from their natural resources and that the extensive rebuilding following the 2004 tsunami disaster did not address the great natural hazards the province faces. It is time to fix this.
