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BRR Aceh–Nias: Post-Disaster Reconstruction Governance

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Asia-Pacific Disaster Management

Abstract

The 2004 Indian Ocean (Boxing Day) tsunami destroyed an 800 km long by 2–3 km wide area along the coast of Aceh Province along with coastal areas and islands of the neighboring South Sumatera Province. Hundreds of lives were lost and more were never found. Three months later, a powerful earthquake ferociously shook a group of islands known as Nias, also causing significant devastation. These large-scale disasters prompted the Indonesian Government to establish a reconstruction agency—the BRR (Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi—Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency).

This chapter begins with a brief description of the socio-cultural and economic conditions of Aceh and Nias, before discussing the way the BRR operates. The chapter then identifies several lessons the BRR learned during its four and a half year tenure. After drawing comparisons with the Great East Japan Earthquake reconstruction process in Tohoku region, this chapter concludes with discussion of lessons learned for future use.

This chapter draws from 10 Management Lessons for Host Governments Coordinating Post-disaster Reconstruction (2009), which is part of the BRR Book Series, a set of unpublished manuscripts prepared by the BRR Book Writing Team of which the author was a member.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, in 2005, Transparency International, ranked Indonesia 137 out of 159 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index: Transparency International (2005). Since 2007, with banking sector improvements and domestic consumption, the national economic growth has been 6 % annually, helping the country weather the 2008–2009 global recession.

  2. 2.

    BRR (2009b).

  3. 3.

    BRR (2009d).

  4. 4.

    BRR (2009b).

  5. 5.

    BRR (2009b).

  6. 6.

    BRR Nias (2008).

  7. 7.

    BRR (2009b).

  8. 8.

    Kuntoro Mangkusubroto has made this point repeatedly, including during a casual conversation (March 2012) after I presented the draft version of this chapter in a staff seminar at the Indonesian President’s Delivery Unit.

  9. 9.

    The HDI data for South Nias in 2005 is not available since this administrative area was only established in 2003. Previous HDI is for the whole island: see World Bank (2007).

  10. 10.

    World Bank (2007).

  11. 11.

    BPS Sumatera Utara (2005).

  12. 12.

    UNDP Bappenas (2008).

  13. 13.

    Presidential Regulation No. 83 of 2005 on the National Coordinating Agency on Disaster Management.

  14. 14.

    BRR (2009a).

  15. 15.

    The Vice President, ex officio, was the Chairman of the Coordinating Body for Disaster Mitigation and Refugee Management (Bakornas PBP), established the National Team for Aceh Disaster Management, and appointed the Coordinating Minister of Public Welfare Alwi Shihab as its head. Subsequently, the head of this National Team appointed military general Bambang Darmono as its Executive Commander.

  16. 16.

    Japan allowed its self-defence force to become involved in reconstruction only after its experience with the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (1995): see Norio et al. (2011). On 13 April 2011, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan sent 100,000 self-defence officers to participate in the Great East Japan Earthquake rescue work. The total number of troops mobilised, including those providing logistics, was 180,000—the largest number of self-defence forces dispatched by Japan since World War II.

  17. 17.

    In a meeting between the BRR Institute and Kyoto University (17 October 2012), Eddy Purwanto, former Chief Operating Officer of BRR and executive director of the reconstruction operation, said metaphorically that he would kill anyone who tried to sell the idea of community participation approach during the first semester of the reconstruction since the speed of construction works was, at that stage, much more important than quality. During that crucial semester, professional contractors and experienced construction workers were needed to bring a semblance of normalcy. In the subsequent reconstruction stage, more community participation was sought.

  18. 18.

    Comparing a number of post-disaster reconstructions, including Aceh–Nias, Fengler et al. (2008) concluded that an independent agency with substantial powers was only a ‘second-best’ solution. The best solution was for the local government to deal with such an operation. In the context of Aceh–Nias, however, there was no better alternative because existing institutions would have had significant difficulties managing the reconstruction process successfully. An extreme example of a government’s lack of capacity would be the post-disaster reconstruction of Haiti, where not only the local government was paralysed, but the national government was overwhelmed to the point of being incapable of conducting a swift and coordinated recovery effort: see, for example, Bellerive and Clinton (2009).

  19. 19.

    Interim Law No. 2 of 2005, issued by the Indonesian President.

  20. 20.

    Law No. 10 of 2005.

  21. 21.

    The President used the Javanese term ‘dirusuhi’, which I have translated as ‘interference’. The President’s simple remark is actually a statement of support. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto had initially intended to decline the BRR leadership. At the National Development Planning Agency office, where Sri Mulyani—the then head of the Agency—had invited the ambassadors of Japan and the United States and USAID Director William M. Frej to a meeting, she asked the ambassadors what they thought if Kuntoro Mangkusubroto did not lead the BRR. The two envoys adamantly rejected the prospect. They were most fearful of uncertainties and distrust from the international community toward the Aceh and Nias recovery efforts. Sri Mulyani did not react immediately but rather called the President in front of the ambassadors. She described the mood of the meeting to the President. He answered, ‘Well, give Kuntoro what he needs’. See BRR (2009a).

  22. 22.

    Iwate Prefecture has 4.75 million tons of debris, the equivalent of 11 years of garbage produced by its households. By March 2012 it had managed to dispose of only 8 % of the debris: Sumikawa (2012). Miyagi Prefecture has 15.69 million tons of debris, the equivalent of 19 years of household trash. Only 5 % of the debris had, at time of writing, been removed. Fukushima Prefecture is left with 2.08 million tons.

  23. 23.

    Sumikawa (2012).

  24. 24.

    Iwaasa and Nakane (2012).

  25. 25.

    Iwaasa and Nakane (2012).

  26. 26.

    Curtis (2011).

  27. 27.

    Law No. 76 of 2011.

  28. 28.

    See Norwegian Environment Technology Center (2012).

  29. 29.

    Zakoda (2012).

  30. 30.

    Shi et al. (2009).

  31. 31.

    Jayasuria and McCawley (2011).

  32. 32.

    BRR (2009c).

  33. 33.

    BRR (2009b).

  34. 34.

    This was a special treasury office located at the provincial level, temporarily established for service during the reconstruction period. The format of the service was later adopted as a standard regular service for the treasury offices throughout Indonesia.

  35. 35.

    See Jha et al. (2010).

  36. 36.

    BRR (2009c).

  37. 37.

    The reconstruction budget for 2011–2015 is ¥19 trillion, and in November 2011, the Diet approved a tax increase on individual incomes and corporate profits that will be in effect for 25 years to cover at least ¥10.5 trillion, the rest coming from government spending cuts.

  38. 38.

    Reconstruction Headquarters (2011), p. 8.

  39. 39.

    Norwegian Environment Technology Center (2012).

  40. 40.

    Nikkei (2012).

  41. 41.

    Giles (2012).

  42. 42.

    Brasor (2012).

  43. 43.

    See Jayasuria and McCawley (2011), TGLLP (2012), and Giles (2012).

  44. 44.

    See FutureCity Initiative proposed by the Japan Cabinet Secretariat (2021a). See Cabinet Secretariat (2012b) for the National Policy Unit discussion at the cabinet on 31 July 2012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. President’s Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight, Jakarta Pusat, Republic of Indonesia

    Tjokorda Nirarta Samadhi

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  1. Tjokorda Nirarta Samadhi
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Correspondence to Tjokorda Nirarta Samadhi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Simon Butt

  2. ANU College of Law, Australian National University, Canberra, Aust Capital Terr, Australia

    Hitoshi Nasu

  3. Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Luke Nottage

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Samadhi, T.N. (2014). BRR Aceh–Nias: Post-Disaster Reconstruction Governance. In: Butt, S., Nasu, H., Nottage, L. (eds) Asia-Pacific Disaster Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39768-4_8

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