The Sociotechnical Constitution of Resilience by Sulfikar Amir

Author:Sulfikar Amir
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

Conclusion

Many disaster victims of the Indonesian mudflow disaster were members of vulnerable groups but proved quite resilient. They adopted and used various coping strategies and took a number of different initiatives to deal with negative consequences of a long disaster. They marshalled resources that existed in their social, organizational, and institutional spheres; used alternative media to voice their predicaments; and worked with sympathizers and allies toward achievable goals. In doing so they interacted with the material objects in their surroundings to tell their stories and fight memory loss, used language to resist a dominant narrative of the disaster, and manuevered within the sociopolitical, legal, and economic constraints to achieve a goal of being compensated fairly.

When the mud started flowing into their villages, many people immediately used what was available to them as a makeshift refugee camp. In this “camp,” they did their best to make the best out of miserable conditions. Many suffered depression and other mental illnesses as reported by the media. But there were others who decided to build a kindergarten, held classes, and started a community radio. Many IDPs eventually moved out of the New Porong Market after staying for up to three years there.

Despite the controversies surrounding the causes of disaster and notwithstanding the unsettled scientific debate about what triggered the eruption, almost all of victims associated this disaster with Lapindo Brantas, the energy company publicly deemed responsible. They have been calling this disaster the Lapindo Mudflow Disaster pointing to the human aspect of and calling attention to the high degree of human agency involved in contributing to this catastrophe. Doing so enabled victims to actively resist the dominant narrative about the disaster told by Lapindo Brantas.

Calling this disaster by another name would not be effective without taking part in creating different associations. Forming different victim groups not only helped the victims collectively fight for what they wanted, but also allowed some of them to get politically involved. What one group (KLM) did by becoming a volunteer group for one of Indonesia’s presidential candidates in 2014 was a response to a changing political climate as well as to transforming ecological and sociocultural systems. A few of them even became candidates themselves in a local election (Christanto 2010a). Others decided not to exercise their right to vote (Christanto 2010b). In short, becoming involved politically allowed them to deal with their changing landscapes and circumstances in the wake of the disaster.

Remembering the disaster every year was another coping mechanism that disaster victims employed. These events have managed to keep the attention of the national media and helped enroll others to their cause. Commemorations and monuments left behind have been serving as a reminder of how this continuing devastating disaster are still in the minds of many villagers who have lost so much but still received little attention from the government. They also act as a way to anticipate potential future disaster by calling attention to their neglected plight as a warning to other people in the country to demand accountability from the government.

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