Let the healing in Aceh begin

Let the healing in Aceh begin
To help residents get on with their lives, foreign aid groups must build up trust

By Albakri Ahmad
For The Straits Times


Straits Times Feb 2, 2005

OVER a month has passed since the tsunami tragedy struck Aceh province in Sumatra. For Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, rescue work is almost coming to an end; the emphasis now is on recovery and rehabilitation.

This second phase of relief work is as daunting as the first, if not more emotionally demanding. For this is the phase in which helpers try to assist survivors who are 'stuck in time' to disconnect from the trauma and reconnect with life.The landscape of action is now also a landscape of meaning. For many Acehnese, a typical response to offers of foreign aid or help during this phase would be 'leave us alone'.

They are grateful for the assistance and relief supplies but are wary of the long-term implications of the presence of international non-governmental organisations.Some Acehnese say cynically that these international communities and foreign governments are helping only so as to secure a 'piece of the pie' for reconstruction projects worth billions of dollars. What could be worse than the perception that foreign agencies are benefiting from the disaster and at the expense of victims or survivors? Adding insult to injury, media coverage has focused largely on the work of international relief agencies and the work of foreign governments. Local and Indonesian relief efforts did not get much media attention.

Continuous reporting of the presence of foreign military personnel does not help in recovery and rehabilitation efforts. It gives the impression that the locals and the Indonesians are helpless and must rely on foreign governments to provide manpower and resources to rebuild the affected areas. Negative sentiment against foreign presence - some Acehnese interpret it as a foreign invasion - may also hinder attempts by the Acehnese to disconnect from their trauma. Helping the Acehnese to recover from their trauma requires both mental and physiological treatment. The basic rule is to establish trust and safety, and earn the right to gain access to work with the survivors.

But emotional and trauma counselling will not be fully effective if survivors are not moved from their temporary shelters to permanent or at least semi-permanent homes. Connecting with life means to do the very things one used to do under normal conditions - going to work, earning a living, schooling, cleaning, cooking, evening chats with neighbours and village folks, etc. Connecting with life also means connecting with the future. While the Acehnese may need time to heal, they have demonstrated the will to live and to start anew. Many activities have resumed. The marketplace is buzzing with village traders and customers, schools are open, and mosques are filled with worshippers for the five daily prayers.

Banda Aceh and other affected areas are being redeveloped. Blueprints for housing and community development, including education and other essential services, are being drawn up by the respective Indonesian ministries and national agencies.These developments are timely to unify and strengthen the spirit and resolve of the Acehnese as they deal with their loss and create their collective future. The fruits of these efforts will not only redefine the landscape and demography of Aceh but also shape its socio-political future, especially in relation to the longstanding issue of self-determination and autonomy.

For us Singaporeans, from a distance, we can only contribute in cash and in kind, and work together with the locals in the recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phase. We empathise, but we can never truly understand and feel what the survivors have gone through.We can define what trauma is, but we cannot pretend to understand the trauma of the survivors and its impact on their lives. If it is any comfort, there is evidence to show that the Acehnese are an emotionally strong people. Far from their grief being uncontrollable, many among them consider the earthquake and tsunami as timely reminders for them to renew their faith. For many Singaporeans who volunteered to do relief work, they too need help to connect back to life in Singapore.

Trauma is not a word found often in our life vocabulary, and therefore even short stints in those affected areas left indelible imprints on minds and souls. Even if not affected much by the trauma, many volunteers felt pangs of guilt as they boarded their planes home. There is a lingering guilt at not being able to spend more time with the survivors to ensure that they return to normal life. Or it may be a case of not giving up that seat on a flight to another person who pleaded for it in order to collect food supplies for affected communities. But guilt can have a positive outcome if it accelerates our efforts to assist the survivors to return to a normal life as soon as possible.

We must continue to extend helping hands so that what may take years to rebuild can be completed sooner. From that fateful day of Dec 26, 2004, the Acehnese people are finding and creating meanings to serve as psychological anchors to help them hold on to their past and at the same time navigate into the future. Far from losing perspective of reality, they offer a landscape for us to find meaning for our own existence and to discover ourselves in humanity.

Albakri Ahmad is director of corporate development and education at Muis, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore. The views expressed here are his own.