"The Foreign Affairs Ministry should monitor their conditions more closely. The floods have created an extraordinary situation that could not have been predicted," said Nurhayati Assegaf, a member of the House of Representatives` Commission I that deals among other things with foreign affairs here on Thursday.
The monitoring, she added, should be done immediately as there were about 8, 000 Indonesian citizens, mostly students, currently residing in that part of Australia.
Assegaf said for a normally dry country like Australia, a major flood disaster like the one now happening in Brisbane had triggered widespread panic because both the local government and people were not used to such a natural disaster. In addition, the depth of the flood waters was also extreme.
Therefore, she was of the opinion that the Indonesia government, the Foreign Affairs Ministry in particular, should direct Indonesia`s honorary consulate in Brisbane to give indirect help to the Australian authorities by monitoring the conditions of Indonesian citizens there.
Assegaf also welcomed the attention given by the Indonesian government to the disaster in Queensland by extending a financial aid of 1.0 million US dollars.
"The amount is small for sure compared to what Australia had given Indonesia when major natural disasters struck, tsunami and earthquake in Aceh and Nias and even recently for Merapi eruptions. What is more important, however, is the empathy we have for them," said Assegaf./P003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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