ACEH TAMIANG — In the narrative of disaster management, the distance between an apology and an admission of failure is often separated by a long corridor of history: is this moral responsibility, or merely impression management?
From President Prabowo Subianto’s visit to the flash flood evacuation camps in Aceh Tamiang—where he offered an apology because aid “has not yet reached everyone”—we are invited to walk that corridor. At its end lies not just the issue of delayed logistics, but also a deeper inquiry into how power responds to disaster: as a systemic failure, or as an unavoidable act of fate?
The President arrived with a firm promise: “the government will come down and help everyone.” Yet, behind the safari suit and handshakes, a fundamental question echoes from the lost forests: why does this apology stop at the speed of response, and not touch the root cause of why the community is so vulnerable?
Between Empathy and Ecology
Let us listen carefully. In his statement, the President urged all parties to “protect our environment, we must safeguard nature,” and asserted, “we must not cut down trees carelessly.” A noble and morally correct appeal.
Yet, this appeal hangs in the air like a message disconnected from context. In Aceh Province—and specifically in the affected regions—the issue has long transcended “careless cutting” by individuals. It has reached the scale of systematic forest conversion for specific commodities, particularly oil palm, which fundamentally alters the hydrological function of the landscape.
Basic ecological science draws a clear distinction: natural tropical forests with layered canopies and deep roots function as giant sponges absorbing water, while monoculture oil palm plantations, with their fibrous root systems, have a far lower absorption capacity. When heavy rains come—a phenomenon as old as the hills—what determines whether it becomes a disaster is the carrying capacity of the landscape that receives it.
The Stage of Emergency Response vs. The Stage of Policy
There is a profound irony in this narrative. On one hand, there is a mobilization of state resources for emergency response that deserves appreciation. On the other, there is a deafening silence regarding spatial planning and licensing policies that for decades have allowed, even legalized, the transformation of forests into plantations in water catchment areas and along river basins.
The question is not about the goodwill of a president visiting the site. The question is more fundamental: will the commitment to “safeguard nature” at the disaster site translate into the political courage to review business permits that may have contributed to this vulnerability?
The dominant “natural disaster” narrative risks abstracting the cause. It shifts focus from structural analysis (how economic-political policies and practices create vulnerability) towards a technical-administrative narrative (extreme rainfall, victim handling, infrastructure rehabilitation). The former demands accountability and policy change. The latter can stop at the cycle of aid and vulnerable rebuilding.
From Aceh Tamiang to National Questions
The case of Aceh Tamiang is not an isolated incident. It is a mirror of a recurring pattern across Indonesia. After a disaster comes empathy and aid. Yet, after the floods recede and media attention shifts, the extractive development model that sacrifices ecological carrying capacity often resumes business as usual.
This is what makes the discourse on elevating the status to a “national disaster” so crucial yet so political. That status is not merely about the budget allocation. It is an instrumentum regnum—a tool of governance—that can provide a mandate for deeper intervention, including a moratorium on certain activities and a comprehensive audit of issued permits. The decision not to elevate the status, therefore, must be read not only as a technical consideration but also as a political choice.
A Note for Authentic Environmental Politics
Aceh Tamiang teaches us a bitter but important lesson: empathy at the disaster site must walk hand in hand with analytical clarity in the policy room.
As a nation, we must move beyond the cycle of “disaster – emergency response – rehabilitation – forgetfulness.” We need to build a culture of ecological politics brave enough to ask:
- The preventive question: What policies have made our communities so vulnerable?
- The restorative question: How do we rebuild based on ecological principles, not merely reconstruct as before?
- The justice question: Who benefits most from the old development model, and who bears the greatest risk?
The President’s apology in the evacuation camp is a humane gesture that deserves appreciation. However, the apology that will truly change the trajectory is an apology followed by corrective action towards the system that produces the vulnerability. That action may become visible not in the evacuation post, but at the desks of spatial planning policy, in permit supervision, and in budgetary prioritization for long-term ecological restoration.
In the end, what we are caring for is not only today’s disaster victims, but also the ecological sovereignty for future generations. For nature does not need our apologies; nature needs intelligent and just policy.
Written by Giostanovlatto, Founder of Hey Bali and Observer of Tourism & Sustainability