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https://doi.org/10.26593/jihi.v15i2.3185.185-196
Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster Diplomacy After
Tsunami Aceh 2004
Surwandono1, Ratih Herningtyas2
1Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia,
surwandono@umy.ac.id
2Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia
ratih_herningtyas@umy.ac.id
ABSTRACT
Diplomacy as a foreign policy instrument of certain states to attain its national interest has traditionally
been the authority of the central government regarding to its adequate capability and authority than other actors.
Indonesia has high rank on disaster vulnerability in the world. Disasters always have been more understood as lost
factors than social capital factors. The 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Aceh was a monumental history how
managing disasters became a source of productive political and economic diplomacy. This paper will explain how
the issue of natural disasters drove some new actors especially local government which has disaster prone areas to
participate on disaster diplomacy activities and develop new strategy to manage and capitalize natural disaster into
positive social capital to solve social problems, economic, political and social culture in disaster prone areas. The
result of article show transformation of actor perceptions on disasters will affect disaster governance.
Keywords: Indonesian disaster diplomacy, local government, para-diplomacy and International cooperation
ABSTRAK
Sebagai instrumen kebijakan luar negeri negara-negara tertentu untuk mencapai kepentingan nasionalnya,
diplomasi menjadi wewenang pemerintahan pusat sebagai aktor yang memiliki kapabilitas dan kekuasaan yang
memadai. Indonesia memiliki tingkat kerentanan yang tinggi terhadap bencana. Bencana selalu dipandang sebagai
faktor-faktor yang hilang (lost factors) dibandingkan dengan faktor modal sosial. Gempa bumi dan tsunami Aceh
pada tahun 2004 merupakan sebuah fenomena yang menjadikan penanganan bencana sebagai sumber diplomasi
politik dan ekonomi yang produktif. Tulisan ini akan menjelaskan bagaimana bencana alam dapat menggerakan
aktor-aktor baru, terutama pemerintah di wilayah yang rentan bencana, untuk ikut serta dalam aktivitas diplomasi
bencana dan mengembangkan strategi baru untuk mengatasi dan menggunakan bencana alam sebagai sebuah modal
sosial yang positif untuk menyelesaikan permasalahan sosial, ekonomi, politik, dan sosial budaya di wilayah
masing-masing. Hasil dari tulisan ini menunjukkan bahwa perubahan pandangan aktor-aktor terhadap bencana akan
memengaruhi pengelolaan bencana.
Kata Kunci: diplomasi bencana Indonesia, pemerintahan lokal, para-diplomasi dan kerja sama internasional
Introduction
The state as an institution that holds
sovereignty and assessing power in international
politics faces increasingly complex global
challenges. Issues such as transnational crime,
environmental degradation, and scarcity of
strategic commodities such as water and food
and increasing intensity of disasters require
changes in government policy strategies to
185
186 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
address and manage these issues1. In its
development, both natural disaster and man-
made disaster have placed it as a new strategic
study in international relations, thus becoming
an important concern in the framework of
foreign policy of a country.
In Indonesia, the 2004 Aceh earthquake
and tsunami have marked a new chapter on how
disasters bring demands of changes in state
responses and policies.2 First, natural disasters
are not only understood as domestic or local
issue, but in some cases have become
international or even transnational issues. This is
characterized by the incidence of disasters in
Indonesia - such as the Aceh Earthquake and
Tsunami and the 2006 Bantul Earthquake - has
become a concern of the international
community especially when the media play a
role in disseminating information and news of
disasters throughout the world. 3
Second, disaster has the potential to
mobilize international actors, not only the state
either central or local government, but also
individuals, NGOs, donor agencies who are
involved in disaster mitigation efforts. The
phenomenon of this movement cultivated an
international solidarity movement that crossed
the territorial borders of the country. 4
1 Ivan Simonovic, ‘Relative Sovereignty of the
Twenty First Century’, Hastings International &
Comparative Law Review, 25 (2002), 371–82.
2 Rina Suryani and others, ‘International Journal of
Disaster Risk Reduction A Conceptual Model of a
School – Community Collaborative Network in
Enhancing Coastal Community Resilience in Banda
Aceh , Indonesia’, International Journal of Disaster
Risk Reduction, 2015, 1–11
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2015.02.006>.
3 Erin P. Joakim and Susan K. Wismer, ‘Livelihood
Recovery after Disaster’, Development in Practice,
25. 3 (2015), 401–18
<https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2015.1020764>.
4 Sisira Jayasuriya and Peter McCawley, ‘The Asian
Tsunami: Aid and Reconstruction after a Disaster’,
Development, 2010, 1–261
<https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004>.
Third, the disaster potentially obscures
the territorial borders and sovereignty of a
country in the name of humanity. In the case of
the 2004 Aceh Tsunami and earthquake, for
example, provided opportunities for military
equipment including warships and infrastructure
of foreign countries commonly used in war to be
a means of disaster management. The mobility
of military equipment within a territory of a
sovereign state also poses a new challenge for
the state. 5
Fourth, the occurrence of a disaster has
the potential to form a new construction of a
disaster conception that may reflect the
contestation of the interests of various actors-
including the disaster-affected countries and the
potential for disasters to be used as instruments of
foreign policy. 6 These points out that disaster are
no longer understood only as a natural
phenomenon but a socio-political phenomenon that
has many consequences for a country. Especially
in recent years the intensity and impact of disasters
shows a tendency to increasing over time. This
paper seeks to see how the Government of
Indonesia conducted disaster diplomacy, especially
after the 2004 Aceh Earthquake and Tsunami, by
observing the changes of actors and strategies.
This article will discuss into 4 parts. The first will
discusses about Indonesia as a most disaster prone
area. The second part will explain about disaster
and para diplomacy as a frame work of analysis,
and will followed with part three which discusses
about Indonesia disaster diplomacy practices and
the last part will explain about the shifting actor
and strategy on Indonesia disaster diplomacy.
5 Allison Carnegie and Lindsay Dolan, The Effects of
Rejecting Aid on Recipients’ Reputations: Evidence
from Natural Disaster Responses, Ssrn, 2017
<https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2909833>.
6 Ashraf Labib, ‘Hurricane Katrina Disaster’, in
Learning from Failures, 2014, XXXI, 153–82
<https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-416727-8.00010-
2>.
187 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
History of Disaster
Disasters studies showed that disasters
was an inseparable part of humanities history
from classical to modern civilizations, on
traditional to complex societies. It means that it
is always happened in wherever and whenever.7
Disaster studies captured range of
disaster causes. There are two theories on
explaining disaster happened. It was namely
natural and man-made theories.8 Natural
theories relied on arguments how geological and
topographic behavior and dynamics of weather
and wind determined to disaster phenomena.9
A number of countries become disaster-
prone areas because it lies in the geology called
the ring of fire. Indonesia has become a country
with high disaster hazard due to geological and
topographic reasons such as the eruption of a
number of mountains, and the collision of rock
plates.10 Indonesia also has latitude around the
equator that causes wind, weather dynamics and
then has implications for high degrees of
rainfall. A number of disasters related to weather
such as floods, landslides, typhoons, become a
regular cycle in Indonesia.
Second, the man-made disaster theory
perspective. Disaster is caused by political
policies that it is discriminate to existence of
“the others” groups or communities. The theory
was developed by Robert K Malthus in the form
of a war policy as a means of protecting the
7 Dale Dominey-Howes, ‘Hazards and Disasters in
the Anthropocene: Some Critical Reflections for the
Future’, Geoscience Letters (Springer International
Publishing, 2018) <https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-
018-0107-x>.
8 Dominey-Howes.
9 International Disaster and Management Regime,
‘Introduction to International Disaster Management’,
Introduction to International Disaster Management,
2016, 11–24 <https://doi.org/10.1016/c2009-0-
64027-7>.
10 Disaster Risk Reduction, Disaster Risk Reduction
in Indonesia, 2017 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
319-54466-3>.
existence of humanity.11 Humanitarian realism
of Malthus's developed further in the view of
Darwin's theory which is then modified into
social Darwinism theory which has implications
for humanitarian disasters, especially inferior
groups. Narratives about war instrumentalism,
genocide, ethnic cleansing, and colonization
reflect the face of humanitarian disasters from
classical to modern.12
Third, combined man-made and natural
disaster theory is based on the argument that
disaster arises because of policy governance and
led to ecological degrade. Industrialization
policy in the history of humanity has done
massive engineering and exploration of nature.
Exploration of nature results accumulative and
massive damage, meanwhile the ability of nature
to carry out natural conservation processes
requires a very long time.13
One very popular example is the global
warming disaster. Global warming is a very
recent event, and is not yet known to the non-
industrial community. Global warming is caused
by the pro-industrialization policy by using
fossil primary energy as a driving energy. A
very complex problem related to the use of fossil
energy is the residue from the industrialization
process in the form of increased levels of CO2
(carbon), which is followed by a reduction in
levels of O2 (oxygen) in the air.14
If this event goes on accumulatively and
massively it will cause the ozone depletion
phenomenon. This is what will then trigger the
surface temperature of the earth will increase
11 Evelin Lindner, Making Enemies: Humiliation and
International Conflict, Choice Reviews Online, 2013,
XLIV <https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.44-4114>.
12 Lindner, XLIV.
13 Riyanti Djalante, Cameron Holley, and Frank
Thomalla, ‘Adaptive Governance and Managing
Resilience to Natural Hazards’, 2.4 (2011), 1–14
<https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-011-0015-6>.
14 Carolyn Kousky and Stephen H Schneider, ‘Global
Climate Policy : Will Cities Lead the Way ?’, 3
(2003), 359–72
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clipol.2003.08.002>.
188 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
which can then lead to the melting of the ice
sheet at the North Pole.
Not only that, global warming also
affects the dynamics of climate and complex
weather, which then triggers floods, crop failure.
This phenomenon is also capable of causing
famine, various endemic diseases. Even for the
Copenhagen school will result in a security
event which became known as securitization.15
Disaster Diplomacy Discourses
The disaster diplomacy discourse was
popularized by Ilan Kelman, a scholar from
Germany. The idea of disaster diplomacy is
inspired by the management of disaster events
that occur in developing countries, Bangladesh.
16 There is creativity and intelligence in seeing
disasters, not just physical events, but how to
manage disaster information, which actually
becomes more substantive in disaster narratives.
Disaster information governance will determine
how disaster events are addressed by disaster
stakeholders. Government and mass media are
two groups of disaster stakeholders who can
play an important role in how disaster events are
reported. 17 The main focus is how disaster
information management can effectively reduce
disaster risk.
Disaster diplomacy in the next stage
starts to talk about how to capitalize on disaster
events for purposes outside of the disaster itself.
Disaster events can change political and
economic choices. This is related to growing
awareness to share experiences and burdens
towards parties who are victims of disaster
events. Changes in thinking towards other
parties allow the opening of communication
channels that have been distorted.18
Once again Ilan Kelman was able to
explain well a number of disaster events and
then be associated with political events.
Although recognized by Ilan Kelman, that
disaster is not the only determinant factor for a
number of acute political reconciliations in a
number of countries, such as Indonesia with the
Free Aceh Movement, Cuba and the United
States, and India-Pakistan, Turkey and Greek.19
If during this disaster diplomacy study
has been able to explain and facilitate the
resolution of past problems as discussed by Ilan
Kelman, there is a new narrative in reading
disaster diplomacy. Ratih Herningtyas and
Surwandono view that disaster events can be
managed to become social capital for future
disaster management, or even that disaster
events can open opportunities for cooperation
between disaster stakeholders outside of disaster
issues.20
This is where then gave birth to a more
accelerated discourse on disaster management.
Disaster diplomacy is not limited to being
understood as management when a disaster
occurs, but also post-disaster management
occurs. This condition causes disaster
management to be more comprehensive,
systematic and long-term. In this context then
15 Lene Hansen, ‘Theorizing the Image for Security
Studies’, European Journal of International
Relations, 17.1 (2011), 51–74
<https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066110388593>.
16 Ilan Kelman, ‘Disaster Diplomacy: How Disasters
Affect Peace and Conflict’ (London: Routledge,
2012).
17 Ilan Kelman, ‘Hurricane Katrina Disaster
Diplomacy’, Disasters, 2007, 288–309
<https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7717.2007.01010.x>.
18 N. Emel Ganapati, Ilan Kelman, and Theodore
Koukis, ‘Analysing Greek-Turkish Disaster-Related
Cooperation: A Disaster Diplomacy Perspective’,
Cooperation and Conflict, 45.2 (2010), 162–85
<https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836709347216>.
19 Kelman, ‘Disaster Diplomacy: How Disasters
Affect Peace and Conflict’.
20 Tulus Warsito, Surwandono, and Ratih
Herningtyas, ‘Proceeding on Asian Graduates
Student Conference’, in How to Capitalize Disaster
as Soft Diplomacy, 2013.
189 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
disaster management touches on the issue of
resilience in dealing with disasters.21
This issue of resilience requires more
actor participation. If so far the actor's
diplomacy is very state centric, so in the context
of building resilience, the State must
decentralize a number of authorities to other
actors such as sub-government which later
became known as paradiplomacy, or delegate to
civilian human organizations.22 This multi-faced
disaster diplomacy discourse will make disaster
diplomacy performance more intensive and
extensive through disaster adaptive
governance.23
Analysis and Discussion
Indonesian government was not
introduced term disaster diplomacy in the Law
of Disaster Number 24 Years 2007, although
Indonesia had experienced conducted disaster
diplomacy in different context and periods along
in Indonesian history. In the era of Sukarno, for
example, Indonesia as a newly independent
country need international recognition from
other countries.
Unfortunately, under Sukarno's anti-
Neocolonialism policy, the image of Indonesia
as a country that is less friendly with Western
countries had influenced international
perception. Furthermore, most of western
countries tried to be demolished Indonesia’s
image by calling the symptoms of food shortage
21 Herningtyas, Ratih, Surwandono, Sejarah ,
Peluang Dan Kerjasama Internasional (Yogyakarta:
MIHI UMY dan CV Komojoyo, 2018).
22 Ilan Kelman and others, ‘Island Disaster Para-
Diplomacy in the Commonwealth’, Round Table,
2006, 561–74
<https://doi.org/10.1080/00358530600929925>.
23 Martin Brown, Åsa Gerger, and Frank Thomalla,
‘International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
Adaptive Governance as a Catalyst for Transforming
the Relationship between Development and Disaster
Risk through the Sendai Framework ?’, International
Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2018, 0–1
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.01.021>.
in some parts of Indonesia as a famine. The
opportunity to restore Indonesia's image and
prestige arose when India suffered a food crisis
and Indonesia, who cited as experiencing
famine, helped by sending tons of rice to the
Indian government. This diplomacy is effective
enough to ward off bad news of hunger in
Indonesia. 24
The concept of disaster diplomacy
became popular in Indonesia after the 2004
Aceh Tsunami mainly popularized by BNPB
Chairman Syamsul Maarif. According to him,
after the 2004 Aceh Tsunami, Indonesia
experienced significant progress in the
management of disaster issues such as in the
legalization of Law No. 24/2007 on disaster
management, developing disaster resilience
through strengthening communities and
institutions and disaster mitigation. This
progress leads to new understanding about
disaster diplomacy.25
Diplomacy as the primary means of the
State in its relations with other states is strongly
dominated by the role of the government along
with the central bureaucracy and issues that tend
to be high politics and economy. The issue of
natural disasters is still very rarely became
considerations of Indonesian foreign policy
decision making. 26
24 Yanyan Mochamad Yani, ‘Change And Continuity
In Indonesian Foreign Policy’, Sosiohumaniora, 11.1
(2009), 1
<https://doi.org/10.24198/sosiohumaniora.v11i1.557
5>.
25 Ratih Herningtyas and Surwandono Surwandono,
‘Diplomasi Bencana Alam Sebagai Saran
Meningkatkan Kerjasama Internasional’, Jurnal
Hubungan Internasional, 3.2 (2016), 181–88
<https://doi.org/10.18196/hi.2014.0060.181-188>.
26 Surwandono Surwandono and Ratih Herningtyas,
‘Content Analysis on Disaster Diplomacy Regime in
Indonesia’, in International Conference on Ethics in
Governance (ICONEG 2016) (Atlantis Press, 2017),
LXXXIV, 143–46 <https://doi.org/10.2991/iconeg-
16. 2017.35>.
190 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
The Aceh earthquake and tsunami
transform the central government of Indonesia to
evaluate the performance of disaster
management. It is too state centric and natural
disaster is no longer commonly regarded as a
domestic disaster that limited to territory of the
state sovereignty. Disaster tends to invite the
participation of international actors, such as
foreign countries, donors, NGOs and even
foreign individuals who want to help the disaster
management process in Indonesia.27 The
presence of various international actors in the
name of solidarity and humanity makes the
government difficult to resist. Moreover, the
tsunami of Aceh was resulting in massive
casualties and infrastructure damage. The image
and capacity of the State are at stake so that
disaster management is a top priority to be
evaluated and improved so that it can become an
important means for the State.28
The earthquake and tsunami that
occurred in Aceh showed a tendency that all the
decisions or the management of natural disasters
concentrated in Jakarta, so it resulted in a delay
of assistance and services needed by society
victims of natural disasters as long bureaucratic
implications. The process of reducing the impact
of devastating natural disasters which are both in
the short-term context for the provision of
medical services and food to earthquake
survivors, and long term reconstruction of
residential services and public utilities, has a
long-term impact.29
27 Marlies Hesselman and Lottie Lane, ‘Disasters and
Non-StateActors–HumanRights-Based
Approaches’, Disaster Prevention and Management:
An International Journal, 26.5 (2017), 526–39
<https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-07-2017-0174>.
28 Manabu Nose, ‘Micro Responses to Disaster Relief
Aid: Design Problems for Aid Efficacy’, Economic
Development and Cultural Change, 62.4 (2014),
727–67 <https://doi.org/10.1086/676816>.
29 Ugo Guarnacci, ‘Joining the Dots: Social Networks
and Community Resilience in Post-Conflict, Post-
Disaster Indonesia’, International Journal of Disaster
On a broader scale, natural disasters
brought some social problems, economic,
political, and security very seriously at the
national level as a result of political, economic,
social and security resources are concentrated to
the affected areas. Dependence of the local
government to the central will only exacerbate
the capacity of local governments to manage
disaster issues, because many stakeholders in
natural disasters will easily accuse it as “the
government is not responsive”.
The problem also often appears related
to international humanitarian aid missions
regarding the presence of hidden (hidden
agenda) as part of aid, either on behalf of state or
international NGOs. Some of the problems that
arise related to this issue are: first, concern to the
intervention of foreign powers as a result the
number of foreign troops into the disaster area
and use it for strategic needs and espionage that
will ultimately threaten national security.
Second, fears of children trafficking, victims of
disasters are not managed properly. Third, there
are fears of penetration of Christian missionaries
to propagate a particular religion to victims of
disasters that can disrupt social stability and
domestic politics. Fourth, political issues related
to humanitarian aid provided by countries do not
have diplomatic relations. 30
The case came to light when there are a
number of logistics, which is managed by
SATKORLAK in West Sumatra, are the official
symbols of the state of Israel. In this sense,
diplomacy must play an important role to
overcome the circumstances, but it must be
difficult to conduct it if all the activities must be
done by central government. 31
Risk Reduction, 16 (2016), 180–91
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2016.03.001>.
30 David A. Baldwin, ‘Foreign Aid, Intervention, and
Influence’, World Politics, 21.03 (2006), 425–47
<https://doi.org/10.2307/2009640>.
31 Raphael Ahren, ‘Israel Reportedly Sends Aid to
Indonesia Following Earthquake, Tsunami’, 2018
191 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
From several studies and documents
conducted by the author, earthquake and tsunami
in Aceh has led to changing of political behavior
in diplomacy. First, In Aceh case the role of
disaster diplomacy is directly done by the central
government. Aceh’s Local Government is
paralysis either capacity or technical, so the
process of disaster diplomacy tends to run in
Jakarta, not in Aceh. In the case of natural
disaster after Tsunami 2004, the Government of
Indonesia constructed the synergy with the local
government to manage natural disaster issues.
Local Government of Yogyakarta for example,
both in provincial level and urban district level
get significant role in disaster diplomacy
practice. Precisely the central government uses
Yogyakarta as the basis of disaster diplomacy in
order to get widely responses from the
international society.32
Second, disaster diplomacy in Aceh tend
to use sympathy reasons, which recently known
as “crying diplomacy”, besides institutionalized
reasons. This case is reflected from the respond
of central government, which The President
declared the petition of assistance towards
International society by expose humanity and
massive damage infrastructure problems. By
exposing the suffering and misery of Acehnese
people, hoping that it will provoke empathy of
international society to involved in settlement of
humanitarian issue in Aceh. Then, this scheme
made massive aid goes to Aceh, but those aid
were not accompanied by adequate management
which causing social, economic, and security
problems. It makes the Acehnese people
seriously depend on it. 33
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-sends-aid-to-
indonesia-following-earthquake-tsunami-report/>.
32 ‘JK: Penanganan Bencana Tsunami Aceh Contoh
Bagi Dunia’, 2015
<https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/201503141
80644-20-39133/jk-penanganan-bencana-tsunami-
aceh-contoh-bagi-dunia>.
33 Akmal Saputra, ‘Sosiologi Bencana: Sebuah
Refleksi Pasca Gempa Dan Tsunami Di Aceh’,
Local and the central government in the
case of natural disaster in Yogyakarta are trying
to develop the institutionalized reasons
diplomacy, which characterized by the
management of disaster diplomacy that was
more programmed and systematic, so aids come
because the practice of disaster diplomacy do
not make many social, economy, and security
problems. The practice of institutionalized
reasons of disaster diplomacy is positively
connected with rapidly recovery of people in
Yogyakarta compared to Aceh. 34
The management of institutionalized
reasons of disaster diplomacy makes
humanitarian agencies can play longer and
maximal to run their humanity mission. For
example, agent JRF (Javanese Reconstruction
Funds) still run the program in Yogyakarta until
5 years after. Also NGO, IOM, Catholic Relief,
Islamic Relief, sent their representative in
Yogyakarta longer and more productive.35
Third, disaster diplomacy in Aceh is
used more by the central government to solve
political security problems in Aceh rather than
social, economic, and education. As a study that
conducted by Kelman, the Government of
Indonesia and agent of International peace use
the case of natural disaster in Aceh as an
important factor for political settlement in Aceh
through Helsinki Agreement 2005. Post
negotiation in Helsinki Agreement 2005, made
political separatism, Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) cases were relatively could be solved
comprehensively. But the central government as
well as Local Government of Aceh was not
much applying disaster diplomacy to increase
welfare quality of Acehnese people through
Jurnal Sosiologi USK, 9.1 (2016), 55–66
<http://www.jurnal.unsyiah.ac.id/JSU/article/view/92
61/7245>.
34 Joakim and Wismer.
35 Hesselman and Lane.
192 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
massive cooperation and international
investment mechanism. 36
It is characterized by the small number
of investment and international cooperation
between Local Government of Aceh and
international stakeholder to increase the number
of humanity index (HDI) of Acehnese people.
Post natural disaster, Aceh is not growing as
province that has progress in education,
economy, and social, therefore 6 years after
natural disaster, problems of security re-
emerged, like; armed terrorism groups are
everywhere, Human Development Index (HDI)
of Acehnese people in 2004 is 6,2 and in 2010
there is only 6,5.37
Disaster diplomacy in Yogyakarta is
more apply, which by natural disaster they
create international cooperation with stakeholder
abroad. The scheme of natural disaster
diplomacy that use by the Local Government of
Yogyakarta tend to copy the disaster diplomacy
used by China’s Government. As a study done
by Weizhun, China’s economic growth have
significant progress within 10 years and it
cannot be denied that this is one of the effort
from Chinese Government capitalization to
manage natural disaster as tools to create
international cooperation with countries that
doubt China’s policy.38
The Local Government of Yogyakarta,
both in province level and urban district are
done with international cooperation in the case
of social, economy, education, culture with
many countries like; Japan, China, India, South
Korea, and Singapore. Those are the cooperation
36 Kelman, ‘Disaster Diplomacy: How Disasters
Affect Peace and Conflict’.
37 Provincial Human Development Report Aceh 2010
(Jakarta, 2010)
<hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/nhdr_aceh_2010_en
glish.pdf%0A%0A>.
38 Weizhun M, ‘The Apocalypse of the Indian Ocean
Earthquake and Tsunami’, World Politics and
Economy (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), 6
(2008).
Government to Government, (G to G), in the
form of sister city as well as sister province
concept, also in the form of Government to
Society (G to S) in the form of culture and
educational exchange and the last, Government
to manufacture (G to M) in the form of plating
investment to drive economic wheel in
Yogyakarta. The institutionalized reasons of
disaster diplomacy in Yogyakarta is positively
correlated against the increasing index of
humanitarian community in Yogyakarta from
6.7 in 2005 become 7.2 in 2010.39
The Yogyakarta local government was
expanding the area of disaster cooperation with a
number of parties. The idea related to disaster
cooperation by the regional government was
actually carried out by the Yogyakarta
government through the cooperation between the
Yogyakarta government and Kyoto Prefecture
and Yamanashi in Japan 40 and Chiang Ma,
Thailand.41
The local government Yogyakarta also
called for sister universities to deal with disaster
issues. Gadjah Mada University got the
opportunity to conduct collaborative research on
disaster management with number of university
in Japan. The exchange of information on
disaster management from Japan is able to
strengthen disaster stakeholder preparedness in
Yogyakarta.
The transformation of knowledge on
disaster management from Japan made the
Japanese prime minister amazed. Even
39 Laporan Akhir Analisis Indeks Pembangunan
Manusia Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta,
2015)
<bappeda.jogjaprov.go.id/dataku/publikasi/download
/10%0A%0A>.
40 Happy Nugraha, ‘Upaya The Japan Foundation
Dalam Peningkatan Kerjasama Indonesia -Jepang Di
Bidang Budaya’, Journal Ilmu Hubungan
Internasional, 5.4 (2017), 1133–48.
41 ‘Wakil Gubernur DIY Terima Kunjungan DPR
Thailand’, 2017
<https://jogjaprov.go.id/berita/detail/wakil-gubernur-
diy-terima-kunjungan-dpr-thailand>.
193 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
Indonesia is able to become a strong country in
disaster management. Indonesia's assistance to
Japan when Japan was experiencing a
catastrophe at the Fukhusima nuclear reactor
leak due to the earthquake shows that
cooperation between Japan and Indonesia has
intensified.
The process of decentralization of
disaster diplomacy in the case of disaster in
Yogyakarta received recognition from the
United Nations. President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono received an award from the United
Nations related to systematic disaster
management based on the Indonesian Tsunami
Early Warning Center (INA TEWS). Some
countries even visited Indonesia to learn about
disaster management.
The Yogyakarta government also called
for sister universities to deal with disaster issues.
Gadjah Mada University got opportunity to
conduct collaborative research on disaster
management. The exchange and sharing of
information on disaster management from Japan
is able to strengthen disaster stakeholder
preparedness in Yogyakarta.42
The transformation of knowledge about
disaster management from Japan made the
Japanese prime minister show his admiration.
Even Indonesia is able to become a strong
country in disaster management. Indonesia's
assistance to Japan when Japan was
experiencing a catastrophe at the Fukhusima
nuclear reactor leak due to the earthquake shows
that cooperation between Japan and Indonesia
has intensified.
The process of decentralization of
disaster diplomacy in the case of disaster in
Yogyakarta received recognition from the
United Nations. President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono received an award from the United
42 C Brassard, DW Giles, and AM Howitt, ‘Natural
Disaster Management in the Asia-Pacific’, Springer
<http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-4-
431-55157-7.pdf>.
Nations related to systematic disaster
management based on the Indonesian Tsunami
Early Warning Center (INA TEWS). Some
countries even visited Indonesia to learn about
disaster management.43
Decentralization in disaster diplomacy
was also given to a number of humanitarian
organizations engaged in the field of disaster. A
number of disaster organizations have
established after a number of successive
disasters in Indonesia such as Muhammadiyah
mendirikan Muhammadiyah Management
Disaster Centre (MDMC), Palang Merah
Indonesia (PMI), Yakkum Emergency
Unit(YEU), Lembaga Penanggulangan Bencana
dan Perubahan Iklim Nahdlatul Ulama (LPBPI
NU), Disaster Management Center Dompet
Dhuafa (DMC-DD), Aksi Cepat Tanggap
(ACT), Pos Keadilan Peduli Ummat (PKU), and
then supported by philanthropy institution such
as Dompet Dhu’afa Republika, Lazismu,
Lazisnu, Baznas.
Humanitarian social organizations are
able to establish synergy with the government,
as well as a number of international partners in
managing national disasters. Even MDMC is
one of the organizations that get the trust of the
government to coordinate and distribute
community and Indonesian government
assistance in the case of humanitarian disasters
in Nepal in 201544, and disaster in Myanmar in
2017. 45
Conclusion
43 ‘JK: Penanganan Bencana Tsunami Aceh Contoh
Bagi Dunia’.
44 ‘Bersama BNPB, Tim MDMC Siapkan
Operasional RS Darurat Di Nepal’, 2015
<http://www.muhammadiyah.or.id/id/news-4513-
detail-bersama-bnpb-tim-mdmc-siapkan-operasional-
rs-darurat-di-nepal.html>.
45 ‘Muhammadiyah Aid Untuk Rohingya Terkumpul
SementaraRp3,3M’,2017
<https://www.republika.co.id/berita/dunia-
islam/wakaf/17/09/10/ow2dpy319-muhammadiyah-
aid-untuk-rohingya-terkumpul-sementara-rp-33-m>.
194 Surwandono dan Ratih Herningtyas | Shifting Actors and Strategy in Indonesia’s Disaster
Diplomacy After Tsunami Aceh 2004
Disaster diplomacy as an instrument for
achieving national interests needs to be
systematically institutionalized in a number of
disaster policy regulations in Indonesia. Disaster
governance requires comprehensive disaster
management that it can mobilize domestic and
international sources simultaneously for
reducing disaster risk.
Decentralization of actor diplomacy is a
must through giving more opportunities to sub-
governments and humanitarian civil
organizations to participate in managing disaster
diplomacy. It is a in-lining with improving the
capacity of actors in order to disaster diplomacy
can run effective and productive.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank RISTEK-DIKTI for
funding this research and the anonymous
reviewers for their useful comments. The views
expressed in this article are our own and do not
represent DIKTI-RI.
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