In Jakarta on January 9, Australia's Prime Minister John Howard announced "the biggest ever aid program in Australia's history" - $1 billion for relief and reconstruction in Aceh.
Of course, it is not the biggest ever aid program in Australia's history.
It pales into insignificance to the cost of the Australian aid program to the US military in Iraq, the US military in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s and the British military in Malaysia in the 1960s.
In any case it is $1 billion Australian dollars over five years, i.e. $200 million a year.
$500 million of this is a loan and the rest includes the cost of the Australian military deployments already in place in Aceh.
The imperialist leaderships have seen an opportunity.
For just a few hundred million dollars over several years, sold as a new Marshal Plan, they want to repackage themselves in the eyes of the peoples of the world.
The imperialist leaders can see that the massive, incredible donations by ordinary people around the world is indeed a potential threat if it ever developed from sympathy and empathy to political solidarity.
Sharon Burrows, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions raised questions about the effectiveness of aid when she announced the ACTUs own fundraising efforts.
"We have been concerned in the past to see the aid dollar go to major global corporates and very rarely put the number of local people back in work that you would want If you wish to donate to directly to Acehnese people's organisations, please donate to SEGERA. SEGERA is a member of the Civil Society Coalition for Victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami, an alliance of indonesian based non-government organisations.
SEGERA itself is a coalition that comprises student, worker peasant, cultural, women and political groups, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) and the Indonesian National Front for Labor Struggles (FNBI).
It also comprises several Acehnese based groups. In Aceh, Raihan Diani, chairperson of the Acehnese Women for Democracy is helping coordinate current field activities. to do immediately after this devastation.
"We would urge all agencies, all governments to actually make sure that local communities, companies and workers feature very carefully first and foremost in the reconstruction effort."
A billion dollars for Aceh will sound a lot to many Australians.
And many people will ask: how much aid is enough - $2 billion? $3 billion?
The reality is of course that no amount of aid can do away with fundamental inequality.
The only thing that will make a real difference is an
Coalition. Indonesia
end to the continuing imperialist exploitation. There is one key step towards this that we must demand now: the cancellation - not a temporary freeze - of Third World debt. The original amount borrowed has been repaid many times and represents the most obvious and immediate way that the First World sucks the life out of underdeveloped countries. Its cancellation is just one step to overthrowing a world order that condemns most humans to despair and poverty.
And in Jakarta, Zelly Ariane, another Acehnese, is coordinating the aid and volunteer mobilisation. Thamrin Ananda, another Acehnese, has been coordinating the departure of volunteers to Ace for the Civil Society
For updates on SEGERA activities, follow: <http://www.acehsolidarity.blogspot.com>
Bank account donations from outside Australia Account name: Yulia Evina Bhara Account number: 10005966325 Commonwealth Bank Jakarta - 12920 -Branch: JI; Jenderal Sudirman, Jakarta. Clearing Code/SWIFT: 9500307.