VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia is a country with a high potential of natural disaster. When disaster happens, it takes lots of lives. Many casualties make people wonder how the mitigation is done by the government and the people.

Indonesia has several laws about disaster handling. There is a law number 24/2007 on Disaster Mitigation. This law mandates the state to handle disaster. However, it is still deemed to have weaknesses so that disaster mitigation efforts until now are judged not maximal.

So far, the disaster risk handling in Indonesia has not been systematically implemented in specific and various disaster domains. The handling is mainly executed during emergency, reactive when disaster hits, with minimum data and information, not done proactively to prevent and reduce the impacts on the disaster risks. 

Central government had issued policies on disaster risk handling in the form of regulations and laws, but in their implementation, they have not included proper mechanisms, mainly in regions or regencies.

Region’s capacity in handling disaster risk is still imperfect. Regional policy in disaster mitigation is not integrated yet in the Regional Budget. Until now, uncertain direction and policy are reflected in the reactive and emergency actions in facing disaster risks.

President Joko Widodo in a National Coordination Meeting on Disaster Mitigation 2020 in Sentul, Bogor, West Java some time ago asked the related ministers to strengthen the disaster mitigation. Following the president's instruction in disaster mitigation strengthening and management, the Ministry of Social Affairs has prepared some measures. Basically, the Ministry supported and encouraged Disaster Mitigation Bill discussion that is included in the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

The key substances in the bill are disaster handling procedures such as prevention, mitigation, emergency alert, emergency response, emergency transition, reconstruction, and rehabilitation.

Besides, related parties’ involvement is necessary in handling disaster. Until now, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency had performed maximally. Still, disaster impact is quite great. Therefore, the bill discussion needs to be paid serious attention to a more systematic mechanism and all related parties can be coordinated.

The Disaster Mitigation Bill is expected to be ratified this year. So, it can be implemented during disaster and the impact will not be so massive.