Indonesian Kuala Lumpur First Case in the World: the Unstoppable Mudflow

For Indonesian people who never got a chance to visit the sparkling Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia, there is a joke: “Go to East Java, enjoy the on-going mudflow that changes a populated area into a mud lake.”

So, what is disaster and sorrow for some people, it could be a new tourist object for others. People from all over Indonesia are coming to Porong, a district at Sidoarjo, a small but prosperous town in East Java. Sidoarjo is rich with fish-ponds, exports of shrimps, centers of industry. It used to be a very charming place to live and work. Not anymore. People move out, despite the difficulty to sell their homes here. Nobody wants to have a home in Sidoarjo anymore.

One day a year ago, on the 29^th of May 2006, a mudflow erupted in a paddy field of a populated area, after a team of gas/oil exploration drilled the wrong earth. Instead of giving the team a sign of prospective gas/oil contain, it gave us mudflow, unstoppable until now. The mud slowly but surely has eaten up acres of paddy fields and fishponds, swallowing houses, schools, mosques, and factories. Most of buildings in 3 villages have vanished from sight, covered by the flowing mud. Some show their roofs, only for a few days or weeks more.

It’s more than a nightmare for the villagers. It’s reality. They have lost their homes, jobs (factories are closed down or moved to other cities), schools for their children. About 30 thousands people are now living in refugee, which are kiosks in a new market building. One kiosk would accommodate 2 or 3 families together. Some luckier victims move to their family homes out of town. The unlucky ones must live together very tightly, sharing public shower rooms and toilets, and eat nasi bungkus distributed by a committee. Recently they complained that the nasi bungkus is not eatable, rotten.

Their children are out of schools. Adults share a “specified room” (with a curtain and rather separated from the crowd) to fulfill their biological/sexual needs. Some children may peep on what they’re doing. The couple must endure the stare and gaze of everybody they meet once they finish their duties. Hungry, cold, jobless, hopeless, sad, angry, that’s the way they feel. Many of them have lost their mind, and moved to mental institutions. Some others chained themselves and refused to eat. Some more went to Jakarta to meet the President and other officials or public figures, or just go on strike on the streets of Jakarta and Surabaya.

All Efforts Fail

Lapindo, the company exploring the populated area for a prospective gas/oil mine, fails to overcome the catastrophe they created. They spend money on daily needs, such as for providing nasi bungkus, and for techniques to stop the mud (which, unfortunately, after three systems were applied, all failed). But they hold on the fact that they are not found guilty. “Wait for the judicial process,” they said, in response to demands that they pay the victims their lands in cash. The Government, which must be responsible for the welfare of its citizens, are reluctant to help the victims, because “This is not a natural disaster, this is an industrial disaster, and Lapindo must be responsible, not Government with the people’s tax money.”

So, who cares about the victims? When victims of Jakarta flood got donation from government –because it’s natural disaster, they say- how do you assume these victims feel when they watch it on TV? “Water flood will pass in three days. Our homes and our futures are gone forever.” The mud also swallows a part of main toll road of East Java, which was closed down half a year ago. The train rail is sometimes closed due to the overflowing mud. The alternative road is the same: one day open, two days close. Trade suffers severely, because Porong is located in the middle between industrial centers (in Pasuruan & Probolinggo) and Surabaya seaport and airport. Transport is very slow and often delayed. Trucks are stopped for hours or days. And costs are flying high.

According to a workshop held by Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, these days, this could be the first of its kind. Mudflow erupted in the middle of populated area and is unstoppable for one year and ongoing. Every technique applied fails. Andang Bachtiar, an Indonesian geologist speaking at the workshop said, “We’d better assume that it may flow forever.” Every expert agrees that, instead of concentrating energy and money on the techniques to stop the flow, it’s better to take care of the victims, the people. They should be paid as much as their lands worth, or relocated to a better area.

The government and Lapindo have not met an agreement. How long will the people suffer more? While President SBY and some politician debated over a corruption issue, which involves only a few hundred millions rupiahs, tens of thousands of people in East Java are crying every night and day, businessmen are loosing and closing their business, trillions of rupiahs are flying away from East Java, dozens of people go insane, some are killed in the boiling mud, ……..

A solution offered by the workshop in Adelaide, according to Kresnayana, an Indonesian statistician attending the workshop, is to declare it as a disaster and extraordinary case. Scientists gathering in Adelaide treat it as “good for research”, visitors treat it as a new tourist object, artists hold happening arts in and with the mud. How the Indonesian government treats this? Nobody knows yet. No plan. It’s a tragedy, and irony ……..

Sirikit Syah 2007 for The Brunei Times

The writer lives in nearby Surabaya