The violent earthquake that shook West Sumatra earlier last week has garnered vast media attention, as well as helping hands from foreign countries, but little has been heard from the country’s dozens of political parties.
The situation differs from when the Situ Gintung dam in Ciputat, Banten, located just southwest of Jakarta, collapsed in March, a month before the legislative elections.
Political parties were among the first to open up aid distribution centers, complete with flashy banners and flags sporting the parties’ respective symbols and names, at ground zero to distribute aid and help disseminate information about the number of victims.
Max Sopacua, a Democratic Party politician, said what his party had done for the Situ Gintung victims was irrelevant to the present situation.
“Today is today,” he said.
He also explained there was a reason for the moderate reportage on his party’s distribution of aid and donations to Padang quake victims.
“It’s charity; people are suffering there. I don’t think it’s necessary to go around telling people that we are doing this or that,” he said.
He added the Democratic Party’s central executive board had been the first to send aid and open up a command post in Padang.
Secretary-general of the Golkar Party, Rully Chairul Azwar, also said his party had sent aid and donations, but did not go to the media to publicize it. He said that party members were still concentrating on a national congress currently held in Pekanbaru, Riau.
“After this congress, maybe we’ll visit Padang,” he told The Jakarta Post.
The limited reports on parties’ actions after the West Sumatra quake — jolting provincial capital Padang and its surrounding areas — have raised concerns that parties jump on the bandwagon to help disaster victims only when it benefits them.
So far more than 600 people have perished in the series of quakes including those trapped under collapsed buildings and hills.
A political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Siti Zuhro, said that Situ Gintung disaster came at an opportune moment for political parties to garner support.
“Now that the general elections are over, they see no benefit in sending aid or volunteers to assist the victims of the Padang quake,” she said, adding that waves of party aid and donations would come again “probably around a year before the 2014 elections”.
“The question has always been: ‘What do I get out of it?’ If it’s for gaining power, everyone will be all out [in helping victims]. But if it’s only for the welfare of people, they linger.”
She added that some political parties might have also drained their money during the recent general elections and therefore could not distribute aid or donations to the West Sumatra quake victims like they did for the Situ Gintung ones.
“But still, they should pay attention to these victims,” Siti said.
She said the political scene in the country was filled with personal interests and the desire for power.
“The politicians need the public’s legitimation during elections, so they only prioritize them then,” she told the Post.
The political parties in Indonesia, she added, have yet to incorporate the people’s welfare into their paradigms.
“It’s as if they don’t see that the people, their constituents, are assets for the survival of their parties.”
The only politicians that have loudly voiced their condolences and plans to donate to quake victims are the newly sworn-in members of the House of Representatives.
Many have pledged to donate a part or all of their first month’s salary for the victims.
Siti said the new House members had made a good move, but hoped it was not simply “a short-lived enthusiasm” . (adh)
Political parties have yet to incorporate the people’s welfare into their paradigms.
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