From Combination of Wireless Technology, Fiber Optics, and SMS to Ensuring Transparency and Accountability

By Protus Tanuhandaru

KOMPAS, 28 March 2005

Almost three months after the Tsunami wiped out most of the coastal regions in Aceh, the devastated regions are still left with nothing but rubbles and debris. And not only they have become a place where thousands of people are dead and massively buried, but the internally-displaced-persons (IDP) are now at the verge of being endangered by starvation and exposed to the harsh condition of post-mortems disaster.

Dealing with such preponderant problems, both governmental and nongovernmental institutions needed to contemplate how to work their relief and reconstruction efforts to their maximum capacity.

Of many initiatives in progress, one crucial prerequisite to begin humanitarian relief effort, before any complicated relief operation should take place, is to know who is doing what, how to help the IDPs, what types of supplies to distribute, and where these profound items should go to. Not identifying what to do precisely would only lead all efforts to go awry and perhaps would cause overlaps and gaps – meaning that some relief agencies are possibly having similar endeavors, yet there are also some fields of exigency left untouched.

Then information has become a crucial factor that would greatly ease the coordination of relief efforts.

However, with scarce resources available and working to provide aid in a military-conflicting region, sending people continuously back and forth to collect data has been a very daunting, almost impossible task. The problem is further worsened when most of the roads and bridges connecting between cities have not been fully repaired, thereby nullifying the option of sending the field-data-collecting agents via ground transport. Therefore, the most efficient, ideal yet exorbitant mean of transport is to go aerial.

In reality, these problems have indeed been revolving and have evinced us that something else must be done to simplify the relief operation.

This is when information technology (IT) plays an important role to overcome physical obstacles. By deploying IT equipments – wireless connectivity, computers and their peripherals – to several IDP camps, field-data-collecting agents do not have to commute to their headquarter and therefore submit the data they have been collecting. But instead, they could conveniently stay put and keep working sedentarily at a place where internet connectivity is available. Had these facilities not been available, the relief efforts might not be as effective as what we have today.

In addition to the implementation of IT-based humanitarian relief effort, the Government of Indonesia is considering to include this IT feature to its comprehensive plan of rebuilding the province of Aceh. Although IT has been very useful in the emergency relief phase, some people perhaps are now questioning whether the profundity of the will-be-implemented IT infrastructure – incorporated into the comprehensive plan – would be as good as it was used in the emergency phase, doubting that the Acehnese – with their current level of education and economic activity that do not really use much of IT application – would be ready for such an enormous IT investment.

Sure, for some people, this feature seems to be slightly redundant, particularly when they realize that the IT investment will be worth millions of dollars. However, it should be taken into account that the comprehensive plan is a permanent plan in which there exist many features supporting an ideal community. These features, replete with their zoning regulation – residential, commercial, and industrial – are to build roads, sewer system, public buildings, parks, mass transits, schools, and even to reserve open spaces for future development. And information technology is just as important as these features are. So if IT is viable and therefore can be included in the comprehensive plan as well, however costly it might be, why not implement it to its fullest potential?

Adding information technology to the comprehensive plan means speeding up the reconstruction process, shortening its timeline compared to its original plan. Better way of communication, such as sending electronic mail instantly and wirelessly from where people work, will enable them to work efficiently and to access global resources needed for the reconstruction effort. In addition, the other trade-off of having IT solution is to reduce operational costs – the cost of transporting people to commute to the nearest media center so that they can finish their task.

Together with wireless device implementation, the most striking of the will-be IT infrastructure is the newly planned fiber optic network that will connect the existing SEA-ME-WE 3 international fiber-optic gateway to Medan, Lhokseumawe, Banda Aceh, Calang, and eventually to Meulaboh. The SEA-ME-WE 3 itself is stretching from Europe to Australia.

Rather than implementing terrestrial fiber optics (land fibers), the undersea fiber optics is one of the best solutions to avoid land proprietary disputes in the future.

Based on many discussion involving many people, it is obvious that information collected from post-tsunami region have become so essential as something to initiate relief. And in such rehabilitation and reconstruction, many accurate information are immediately needed. Not having accurate data has become the most profound phenomenon, which is being experienced by many relief agencies in the last three months.

Therefore, involvement of many people also determines the success of resolving issues entailed in the rehabilitation and reconstruction process. Because ICT facility in all of region affected by the Tsunami is still inadequate, to establish new networking system will obviously render an exceptionally high cost, notwithstanding the issue of controlling and monitoring funds being donated from many overseas institutions.

One of many ways to anticipate this transparency and accountability issue, AirPutih Foundation, an institution that voluntarily provides wireless connectivity in Aceh, is contemplating to provide additional access-to-information feature such as Short Message Service (SMS), which will be facilitated by all GSM operators.

Such a service will use the access code number 9731, but will be free of premium charge, meaning that every information sent to this number will only be charged approximately Rp. 250 – Rp. 350, not the commercial rate Rp. 1000 – Rp. 2000.

Through this SMS service, the government, and all entities involved in Aceh will be able to share variety of information such as the condition of IDP camp, logistic and importantly report of corruption in using donated funds.