This article was originally published by The Conversation Indonesia.
The government’s response to the flash floods in Sumatra has been deeply disappointing. In the process of writing this article, floods and landslides in Sumatra have killed 753 people, left 650 missing, and injured 2,600. Despite this, the central government has yet to declare a national disaster.
The Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Suharyanto, compared the death toll in Tapanuli to the 2004 Aceh Tsunami and COVID-19 as the government’s reason for not declaring a national disaster. This statement seems to reduce human lives to mere numbers.
Another equally disturbing statement: Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia called the Tapanuli disaster a moment to “restructure the mining sector.” In Indonesia, citing research done by Atmaezer Simanjuntak, the term “restructuring” in the extractive sector generally means streamlining investment flows, not ecology.
By this logic, disasters are seen and treated as business risks that can be resolved through bureaucratic equalization and permit certainty. Whereas it is the granting of concession permits that has caused this crisis to happen.
Meanwhile, President Prabowo Subianto, during his visit to the evacuation site, declared: “We are grateful that the weather has improved. The worst (weather) forecast is over.” This gratitude, coupled with the ever-increasing death toll, is inappropriate for a public official.
In his research on the narrative of forest and land fires in Central Kalimantan, Sofyan Ansori (2023) also frequently found similar narratives reproduced by the government to justify exploitation and shift responsibility.
This pattern has repeated itself throughout history and has led to a continued increase in disaster risk without serious mitigation. The government may continue to blame the wind for this disaster, but the large logs swept away by the flood clearly indicate human intervention in the disaster’s formation.
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Ansori, S., Simanjuntak, A. H., & Roswaldy, P. 2025. Jangan Minta Rakyat Bersyukur Cuaca Membaik Kalau Deforestasi dan Eksploitasi Alam Terus Dibiarkan. The Conversation Indonesia.