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Aceh's communities look to traditional support
Fish galore: The morningâs catch is sold at a fish market in Meulaboh, West Aceh
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span class="inline inline-center">Fish galore: The morning's catch is sold at a fish market in Meulaboh, West Aceh. Fishermen are among locals in dire need of support; local officials say they have yet to attract investors despite the huge potential from fisheries in the regency. JP/Ati Nurbaiti
A popular Acehnese dish is a vegetable soup full of coconut milk, but one resident unexpectedly mentions it in bitterness. 'We are like the coconut in the pliek u,' says Misran Yusuf, a local cleric in what was one of the most devastated coastal villages in the capital.
The survivor of the 2004 disaster that hit his village, the popular beach resort of Lampuuk in Banda Aceh, was describing daily hardships. The coconut's content is repeatedly squeezed to yield enough milk for the soup.
Today many say they are still very poor and have almost given up on inept local governments and people's representatives.
To better cope, one current effort is to revive the traditional lowest decision-making institutions: the dewan adat (customary councils) and the local imam, the gatherings in the meunasah (local mosques), the gampong (villages) and their keuchik (chiefs) ' who are often no longer the typical old wise men.
'I shouldn't be a village head,' says Mujibulloh, the head of another largely wiped-out village, Ujung Pancu, who estimates his age at 40. But he was the only one villagers could trust and now he oversees 87 families.
The gampong heads became increasingly essential in rebuilding communities, especially where land was no longer inhabitable for the few survivors, either because it had been swept out to sea, or because the land had become too
close to the receding shoreline ' down to 2 kilometers or less in several areas.
Tsunami debris is still seen on some coastal sites.
To settle land disputes after the calamity, locals also turned to village heads, who consulted customary elders where possible; the old markers like big trees and stones had been washed away from many claimed plots, most or all of those entitled to inheritance had died and vacant plots were prey to other claimants at a time when land was increasingly scarce.
The Acehnese have also revived their traditional profession-based leaders, such as the leaders of fisherfolk, the panglima laot (sea commanders).
In Ujung Pancu, sea commander Afrizal is another young leader who had to step up to lead, as his predecessor had to replace the regional panglima laot, who died.
Among other tasks, Afrizal mediates disputes over boat accidents involving fishermen and boat owners from other areas, by meeting with their respective panglima laot.
The sea commanders also register fishermen's children to access scholarships from the elementary level to higher education, but families must be patient, he says, as the annual quota is small. Children of widows are prioritized, Afrizal says.
Environmentalists and marine biologists from the Syiah Kuala University work with the sea commanders in rehabilitating the ecology ruined by the earthquake and tsunami.
'We have reached an agreement with the community leaders against bombing' coral reefs, the common practice of fishermen in coastal villages like Ujung Pancu, says Firdus, a lecturer of the university's biology department.
To prevent often failed efforts in planting of mangrove or pines, to protect the coast in the event of another coastal disaster, Afrizal says local authorities should actually visit the areas under their jurisdiction.
He adds that he has also demanded local officials study feasible income-generating activities as the water is no longer suitable for shrimp ponds, which were all wiped out in the tsunami; the nearby river was also submerged.
Similarly, Misran in Lampuuk vents anger at local agricultural officials who he says have not helped with urgent needs like irrigation.
Poor villagers include former guerrillas and victims of war who were entitled to reparations following the 2005 peace agreement.
'But former GAM members came to realize that as former fighters in other villages weren't getting anything, so they did not make demands on me,' says the keuchik Mujibulloh.
Facing the open sea with easy escape routes despite scattered security posts, villages like Ujung Pancu were known as GAM strongholds.
Apart from accessing local authorities and making decisions there is not much local leaders can do in very poor villages lacking outside support.
'There's no way to set up a cooperative here,' Afrizal says. 'Fishermen even think seven times to borrow Rp 1 million. They will borrow, say, Rp 200,000 [US$80.14] from friends to go fishing for a few days.'
Local leaders have had to appease residents regarding allegations of unfair distribution of aid.
Rizal, a village secretary in Calang, another largely wiped-out coastal town in West Aceh, says. requested aid for poor widows, for example, is always short.
'We were told we cannot yet get all the needed rice for the poor families and widows,' says Rizal, adding that the gampong distributes the available rice as fairly as possible to all the needy in turn.
The keucik and other leaders say they are doing what they can to help communities still deeply affected by the war and the disaster ' and local politics.
'Maybe we're not getting enough subsidized rice because we are not one of those desa pejuang [warrior villages],' says another village official.
Such villages were those considered fully loyal to the GAM, who now dominate the local legislature, he says.
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The Acehnese have also revived their traditional profession-based leaders, such as the panglima laot ...
