|
George Yeo hands over Singapore-built hospital to Indonesia
MEULABOH (Aceh): Singaporeans were the first foreigners to set foot in tsunami- ravaged Meulaboh, Aceh, days after tragedy struck on Boxing Day, 2004. They came to help heal the wounded and begin the task of rebuilding a town reduced to rubble.
 Yesterday, 51/2 years later, Foreign Minister George Yeo announced the completion of all major reconstruction projects in the biggest humanitarian mission in the Republic’s history.
And as Team Singapore pulled out, it left behind a modern hospital, spacious schools, brightly painted homes – and a people who are learning to hope again.
The minister was in the coastal Indonesian town – which lost a quarter of its 40,000 people to the tsunami – to hand over a $12 million general hospital built by Singapore to the Indonesian authorities.
When Singapore first offered to help its neighbour after the tsunami, the Indonesian government requested that it focus its efforts on Meulaboh.
Its bridges were broken. The arterial roads connecting it to Banda Aceh and Medan were clogged with debris. Its pier had been swept away. Its main hospital, while largely spared by the waves, had been damaged by the earthquake. Bodies were piling up in the courtyard.
Yesterday, that same courtyard, rebuilt, like the rest of the hospital came alive with music and dance.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Yeo said that when he first visited Meulaboh nearly a year after the tsunami, there was still “destruction everywhere”. “Now, each time I come, I see progress.”
The Cut Nyak Dhien Hospital was the 70th and last project to be funded by the Tidal Waves Asia Fund, set up with donations from the people, corporations and Government of Singapore. Roughly two-thirds of the $89 million collected was allocated to Indonesia. The rest was spent on projects in Thailand, Sri Lanka
and the Maldives.
The fund was administered by the Singapore Red Cross (SRC), which built the hospital in collaboration with the Singapore Government and Temasek Holdings.
While reconstruction work has officially ended, Singapore will continue to strengthen administrative capacity in Meulaboh, Mr Yeo said, adding that he was in talks with the World Bank to see how best to further help Meulaboh.
 “So many people died... An administrative culture has got to be built up and all kinds of specialists must be trained. Where we can, within our resources, we should help, and will continue to do so.”
Some of that hand-holding is already under way, said SRC chairman Tee Tua Ba. Four hospitals – Alexandra Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore General Hospital, and Changi General Hospital – have helped train new medical staff in Aceh, after huge waves swept away not just hospitals and health centres, but also “countless medical staff”.
Indonesia’s Minister for National Planning and Development Armida Alisjahbana thanked Singapore for helping rebuild infrastructure and buildings and make the new hospital a “landmark” for Meulaboh.
The hospital, which is earthquake proof now, will serve 200,000 people living within a 70km radius of the city.
Aside from the hospital, the Singapore Government and non-governmental organisations such as the SRC and Mercy Relief also funded the reconstruction of a pier, schools, homes and orphanages.
The pier proved especially useful at a time when aid agencies had to rebuild a city virtually inaccessible by road, said Mr Ramli M. S., the head of West Aceh district. “Singapore helped us rebuild infrastructure and the city today has much better facilities than what it had before,” said Mr Ramli. “Now we have to focus on the future and rebuild our economy.”
For ordinary Acehnese like Madam Asmanidar Abdya, 30, memories of the past still overshadow the promise of the future. The padi farmer lost her firstborn, Randi, in the tsunami. Three days ago, she gave birth to another son – the second baby to be born in the newly refurbished hospital.
As the yet-to-be-named baby nestled beside her, his mother’s thoughts turned to the other little boy she had loved and lost. “I feel sad when I think of him,” she said in Bahasa Indonesia. “But today at least, I am happy.”
|