Unspun

Not a few Jakartans were quaking with fear after a prankster on Tuesday sent out a SMS that the city would be hit by a 8.8 magnitude earthquake.Their fears were understandable. After Aceh, Yogjakarta and Pangadaran it now looks as if the whole area is getting unhinged and it is a matter of time before Jakarta gets its turn. Fuelling the anxiety is a predicting made by well-known “paranormal” Permadi that jakarta will be hit by a natural disaster before the year is out.

Earthquakes we cannot control but our responses to them we can. There are two things that the Jakarta authorities need to do. The first is to let people know which buildings are safe and which are not. There is a well based assumption that many buildings in Jakarta have been constructed below standards and the contractors paid their way toward a building worthiness permit. A sweeping survey of public and high rise buildings would give Jakartans working there some peace of mind.

We are all only too aware ofthat the massive scale of destruction in Aceh and Yogjakarta could have been mitigated if only the buildings were not so shabbily constructed. The iconic images of mosques as the only buildings left standing in Aceh after the tsunami may be a sign of divine intervention to some but to others it is testimony that many lives could have been saved if building regulations had been better enforced. Mosques, so goes one theory,are vitrually the only buildings constructed to building standards because it would be a major sin for the contractors to cut corners and skimp on God.

The second thing that the jakarta authorities should do is to come up with a disaster management plan that involves not only the state organizations and the military but civil society as well. Once that is done this plan should be exercised so that the flaws in the system can be addressed and improved on. The system developed by the US’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (before Bush destroyed it by placing the wrong person to handle it) is a good example to follow.

Such moves could potentially save thousands of liv and help the city, as well as the nation, recover if a quake should hit. Not that any of us are looking forward to it.