Natural disaster has become part of lives of Indonesian people. The impacts of natural disasters are human casualties and economic loss. Despite the government measures on disaster risk reduction mitigation, these are still not optimum and comprehensive.
“Even when a disaster strikes, it does not go along with optimum disaster mitigation by government that has devised disaster impact mitigation framework and possibilities to prepare a disaster resilient community,” said Idaman, S.Ag., M.A., lecturer of Faculty of Law at Universitas Halu Oleo, Sulawesi, in his doctoral promotion at Faculty of Philosophy UGM on Wednesday (15/3).
He said the Indonesian people were accustomed to natural disasters and, in turn, this gives them experience and knowledge to minimise the impact of the disaster. His research on human attitude to natural disaster using the study of German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, according to Idaman, is very relevant to disaster handling issue in Indonesia. “This can be seen in his view about self-awareness and disaster reality. Through self-awareness, human beings will eventually understand their being in the world,” he said.
According to Martin Heidegger, disaster is able to move people’s solidarity massively and spontaneously under their own self-awareness, is able to raise social awareness and basic humanitarian values universally. “Disaster can awaken the spirit of creativity among people, so it is highly possible to build the bond between people, even for a short period,” he said.
He said in the perspective of Martin Heidegger, self-awareness of survivors is not something instantly understood by other people, it does take time through awaiting period to be able to describe such awareness. “So, it requires communication, emphathy, and intense relations between survivors and those who have the risk for becoming survivors,” he said.
In Idaman’s opinion, local wisdom in disaster mitigation will form a synergy with the hermeneutics idea of Hermeneutika Martin Heidegger on the effectivity of natural disaster mitigation in Indonesia. “Local wisdom and Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutics are two important contributions to the government in dealing with natural disasters,” he said.