Transcript ‘When a president has to cry’
Pictures of women crying and falling in the arms of the president. The president’s wife tries to calm them down.
00.58 woman: her whole family died
01.03 president: I will evaluate, mr Jusuf, the system is running, of course there are still a lot of problems but the situation is improving day by day. The priorities are food, medicine, clothes while we keep searching for dead bodies and missing persons.
01.23 VO: Its been two days since the tsunami
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gives instructions to the vice-president. Around him there is death and destruction on a scale hard to imagine. (pictures of dead bodies, president praying, dead bodies picked up by a bulldozer and thrown in a massgrave)
01.56 president: I was so saddened and shocked seeing that this happened. U can imagine a leader who is seeing thousands of his brothers and sisters died in this horrible condition. I have to control my emotions. As a president I have to be emotionally strong. But of course I have to manage my own feelings to still think clearly and to make a correct decisions and to take correct action.
02.46 VO: Wounded victims lying on the steps of a hospital.
A few days since the disaster and nobody has taken care of them. While president Yudhoyono is visiting survivors inside, a woman outside begs for help
02.59 woman: I am in a terrible condition, lying like this. It would be better if I could go inside. I am just lying outside. Did nobody treat you so far? No nobody. They have asked me to go to the police hospital. Can you please help me? Where is your family? They are in Leupeng. Are they still alive? Yes they are alive. I am just lying here like this. I will die soon and nobody will know where I am.
03.28 Amien Rais, former opposition leader: The rescue operation was quite disappointing. I don’t know what is going on in the head of the president and vice-president
03.41 Amien Rais, former opposition leader: This is a very unprofessional and irresponsible government. I have to criticize you know. So I am ashamed not only to my nation but as an Indonesian son I am ashamed to the international community.
04.03 president: My beloved brothers, the people of Indonesia voluntarily have provided you with this food aid and more will follow for those who became victim of the disaster. Please accept this. ..I have not found my children, Sir, not a single one. Please help us, bodies are still everywhere. We will start right now, we will clean up the dead bodies and find those who are missing. Please, take this food aid first. Thank U very much, sir. Be brave and strong! (pictures of president standing in disaster area, handing out food aid to survivors. Survivors begging for help)
04.39 VO: When confronted with these pictures, the president admits that in the first days of the disaster, help WAS too slow to arrive.
04.47 man: we need help, we need help because everything is gone
04.56 president: I have to admit that we are facing problems of coordination. It happened in many disaster areas, in many countries as well. Government is paralyzed, communication is down, hard to communicate to ask information, what is really happening. If this kind of disaster happens again, of course I pray it will not happen in Indonesia, we have to improve our national system in dealing with the disaster. We have to be more responsive by building correct early warning systems, by having more helicopters, aircrafts, vessels and the rapid deployment force to be deployed quickly in the disaster areas.
(pictures people fighting for food aid)
06.02 man: Yesterday they brought us food. They just threw boxes of noodles at us. We did not accept it. Why not? It is not right. They did not even stop, while driving they were throwing food at the people of Aceh. What kind of help from Indonesia is that! Tell the Australians to come and help us, we need help from abroad.
06.29 VO: Survivors in Aceh have little faith in the government. For nearly thirty years they have been caught in the middle of a war between government troops and rebels of the Free Aceh Movement. The province was closed to foreigners, and old habits die hard. 48 hours after the disaster, international aid organizations are ready to go, but they don’t know if they’ll be allowed into Aceh.
06.51: question press conference: Why didn’t you ask for specific needs from other countries? So they are allowed in?
07.10 president during pc: Well I think I have explained in Bahasa Indonesia that since the international organization made their commitment to assist Indonesia that we welcome the contribution from international organizations from friendly countries.
07.33 president: Of course there are sensitivities also among us to accept the presence of international organizations because in the past there is a view that foreigners are not neutral by seeing problems in Aceh. Even though I know that there is a lot of resistance here in Indonesia to accept the foreigners I made a decision ‘no’ we have to accept them because this is about the safety of our brothers and sisters. I don’t want to be blamed because of lack of resources to save lives then we could not do enough.
08.25 VO: Foreign aid does start to come in, but the Indonesian military have been accused of doing to little to help those most in need. Some even continue their security patrols, surrounded by the tens of thousands of dead who lie strewn across the city. But the president, himself a former general, defends his troops.
08.47 president: I could see by my eyes, hundreds of soldiers work day and night to conduct rescue operations, to bury the dead, to distribute logistics, not necessarily seen by the press because they were not using helicopters. The used their own hands, feet and tools that they are possessing.
09.21 president: U still remember when I visited Meulaboh. I could see lot of soldiers who were working day and night even though they also lost their families.
09.32 president talking to soldiers: He has lost his children….. He has lost his wife and child. His child was fourteen days old. ..We offer our condolences. The country will help you
10.15 colonel Geerhan Lantara: This area has already been cleared of dead bodies. But in other areas they are still lying around? Maybe yes. We can still smell it, right? Yes.
10.41 VO: Meulaboh, on the west coast of Aceh, was the closest city to the epicentre, and has suffered accordingly. More than half of the city has been washed away. Local commander Geerhan Lantara shows us around. This area is totally cut off from the outside world. …..
11.10 VO: Colonel Lantara shows the president a video of the disaster. Even this hardened veteran can’t control his emotions
11.17 sound up video: go aside, go aside!!
11.21 colonel Geerhan Lantara: this is our ambulance that also ended up in the water, sir. With the passengers inside? Yes with the passengers
11.32 colonel Geerhan Lantara: with only a jerrycan he is trying to save peoples lives
11.42 This boat nearly hit me, sir, really sir. Our ambulance has helped a lot of people but it was washed away with all passengers in it . ….This is the ambulance, all the dead bodies we put on top of the ambulance.
12.08 (president emotionally) I know Geerhan well, he is a tough officer, a good leader. When I heard their words, their presentation I was so touched. On the other hand I am really proud of him, he made correct decisions, he is brave and made correct decisions and he handles it really well to save the lives. I am really proud of him. Even I could see the eyes of lieutenant colonel Catur and one captain, who lost their wife and sons are still working seriously to help Geerhan to present to me the actions done by colonel Geerhan. So it is a mixed feeling of me seeing the situation, listening to what has been said by colonel Geerhan.
13.26 VO: After the disaster Colonel Lantara was promoted. He’s been accused of human rights abuses in East Timor, but the president says the charges aren’t true.
13.38 VO: A few months after the tsunami president Yudhoyono flies to Washington for his first official visit. Billions in aid money has been promised from all over the world. The American government alone pledged nearly a billion dollars.
13.53 president speaks in plane: During my meeting with president Bush the most important thing is a few talkingpoints. Bush likes to know what we want to achieve during the next five years. What our priorities are and how the United States can contribute to that. That’s what I want to make clear to him straight away.
14.10 voice of Bush: Good afternoon and welcome to the white house. We are joined by a very special quest, a close friend of America…..(interviewer:)Could you tell me the name of the president of Indonesia? No, sorry, it’s a woman isn’t it? Susilo Bambang Billijodjo.
14.35 Bush: president Yudhoyono from Indonesia, welcome mister president
14.47 J. Dennis Hastert, speaker of the House, We are very honoured to have with us the president of Indonesia. We are going to meet with him and talk things of our mutual interests between the people of Indonesia and certainly of the United States. We salute them for the work they have done after the devastating ‘tsunumi’ and we will continue to work with them. Mr president thank you very much
15.11 president Bush: Americans from all over our country from all walks of life used their time and talents and compassion to make a difference. Heck I even called on two former presidents. 41 and 42 Bush and Clinton, to join together to send a message, we are not talking politics, we are talking about people get their feet back on the ground, we are talking about saving lives. That’s the American spirit mr president.
15.46 president Yudhoyono: If I could be frank there are always elements in one country that are sometimes unhappy with what is done by other nations. In Indonesia also some elements are not happy with what America is doing. But some of them are not, so actually what was done by the United States in Aceh of course provides a positive thing that what is done by the US is not necessarily connected to politics. To other motives but also to their willingness to help others. Of course to me what is done by Australia, by the US and others will provide a positive impact to the people of Indonesia
16.46 VO: Yudhoyono reads a letter from an American girl to a girl from Aceh who was orphaned in the disaster.
16. 53 president; This is how Nada looks like.. (shows wrong paper) ..oh yes I am sorry, this is how Nada looks like. Nada Lutfia.
17.13 president: My dad, mom, older brother, younger brother have disappeared and now I live with my cousins. I hope you are healthy and well were you are. I am so glad that you are paying attention to us here. Your friend Nada. I think the world would be a better place if all of us start to have connections and have conversations the way Nada and Meggie did. Thank you very much.
17.50 president: For me this is about human kind, this is about humanity, the sisterhood between those two girls and I believe that president Bush was touched also listening to those letters. I believe that he realized that even a young girl from America is making friends with her sister in Aceh. (interviewer) You even made him cry I think, Bush. Yes even I was touched also. Did you ever cry after the tsunami? Yes I am an ordinary man, ordinary human being, every time I visited Aceh I was always touched. Sometimes my wife and I couldn’t stand very well, because I could really understand, I could feel in my heart the impact of the tsunami.
18.53 VO: It’s now a year since the tsunami devastated Aceh, and still almost half a million people are living in temporary accommodation, 75 thousand of them in tents. Yudhoyono admits that the reconstruction process is moving too slowly.
19.10 president: I realize that there are a lot of problems we are facing in the field to rebuild so many houses, more than 70.000 houses. We are now accelerating to process. We are facing difficulties because there is not enough local resources to use to accelerate the process. So I have instructed to my ministers to mobilize all resources all over the country. I was told also that compared to other nations in rebuilding the houses that it took time also. (interviewer)One of the problems was some bureaucratic delay in some ministries in Jakarta. I heard you got really angry with them at a cabinet meeting. Can U tell me what happened? Yes I did check why. Of course sometimes there are procedures to be followed and they don’t want to break the regulations because I am fighting corruption real hard, they are afraid that they will be blamed for not following the procedures. But I said to them ‘no’ this is urgent. (interviewer)So u had to use some tough words to the ministers to speed them up. That’s my job, that’s my task.
Music
21.06 president: we had planned this event already in January but then the tsunami hit Aceh so we decided to postpone it until the situation would improve.
President singing
21.36 president: I like to sing just to be relaxed, just to have a balance in my soul and body, so as a leader I can accomplish my mission
President singing
Pictures of women crying and falling in the arms of the president. The president’s wife tries to calm them down.
00.58 woman: her whole family died
01.03 president: I will evaluate, mr Jusuf, the system is running, of course there are still a lot of problems but the situation is improving day by day. The priorities are food, medicine, clothes while we keep searching for dead bodies and missing persons.
01.23 VO: Its been two days since the tsunami
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gives instructions to the vice-president. Around him there is death and destruction on a scale hard to imagine. (pictures of dead bodies, president praying, dead bodies picked up by a bulldozer and thrown in a massgrave)
01.56 president: I was so saddened and shocked seeing that this happened. U can imagine a leader who is seeing thousands of his brothers and sisters died in this horrible condition. I have to control my emotions. As a president I have to be emotionally strong. But of course I have to manage my own feelings to still think clearly and to make a correct decisions and to take correct action.
02.46 VO: Wounded victims lying on the steps of a hospital.
A few days since the disaster and nobody has taken care of them. While president Yudhoyono is visiting survivors inside, a woman outside begs for help
02.59 woman: I am in a terrible condition, lying like this. It would be better if I could go inside. I am just lying outside. Did nobody treat you so far? No nobody. They have asked me to go to the police hospital. Can you please help me? Where is your family? They are in Leupeng. Are they still alive? Yes they are alive. I am just lying here like this. I will die soon and nobody will know where I am.
03.28 Amien Rais, former opposition leader: The rescue operation was quite disappointing. I don’t know what is going on in the head of the president and vice-president
03.41 Amien Rais, former opposition leader: This is a very unprofessional and irresponsible government. I have to criticize you know. So I am ashamed not only to my nation but as an Indonesian son I am ashamed to the international community.
04.03 president: My beloved brothers, the people of Indonesia voluntarily have provided you with this food aid and more will follow for those who became victim of the disaster. Please accept this. ..I have not found my children, Sir, not a single one. Please help us, bodies are still everywhere. We will start right now, we will clean up the dead bodies and find those who are missing. Please, take this food aid first. Thank U very much, sir. Be brave and strong! (pictures of president standing in disaster area, handing out food aid to survivors. Survivors begging for help)
04.39 VO: When confronted with these pictures, the president admits that in the first days of the disaster, help WAS too slow to arrive.
04.47 man: we need help, we need help because everything is gone
04.56 president: I have to admit that we are facing problems of coordination. It happened in many disaster areas, in many countries as well. Government is paralyzed, communication is down, hard to communicate to ask information, what is really happening. If this kind of disaster happens again, of course I pray it will not happen in Indonesia, we have to improve our national system in dealing with the disaster. We have to be more responsive by building correct early warning systems, by having more helicopters, aircrafts, vessels and the rapid deployment force to be deployed quickly in the disaster areas.
(pictures people fighting for food aid)
06.02 man: Yesterday they brought us food. They just threw boxes of noodles at us. We did not accept it. Why not? It is not right. They did not even stop, while driving they were throwing food at the people of Aceh. What kind of help from Indonesia is that! Tell the Australians to come and help us, we need help from abroad.
06.29 VO: Survivors in Aceh have little faith in the government. For nearly thirty years they have been caught in the middle of a war between government troops and rebels of the Free Aceh Movement. The province was closed to foreigners, and old habits die hard. 48 hours after the disaster, international aid organizations are ready to go, but they don’t know if they’ll be allowed into Aceh.
06.51: question press conference: Why didn’t you ask for specific needs from other countries? So they are allowed in?
07.10 president during pc: Well I think I have explained in Bahasa Indonesia that since the international organization made their commitment to assist Indonesia that we welcome the contribution from international organizations from friendly countries.
07.33 president: Of course there are sensitivities also among us to accept the presence of international organizations because in the past there is a view that foreigners are not neutral by seeing problems in Aceh. Even though I know that there is a lot of resistance here in Indonesia to accept the foreigners I made a decision ‘no’ we have to accept them because this is about the safety of our brothers and sisters. I don’t want to be blamed because of lack of resources to save lives then we could not do enough.
08.25 VO: Foreign aid does start to come in, but the Indonesian military have been accused of doing to little to help those most in need. Some even continue their security patrols, surrounded by the tens of thousands of dead who lie strewn across the city. But the president, himself a former general, defends his troops.
08.47 president: I could see by my eyes, hundreds of soldiers work day and night to conduct rescue operations, to bury the dead, to distribute logistics, not necessarily seen by the press because they were not using helicopters. The used their own hands, feet and tools that they are possessing.
09.21 president: U still remember when I visited Meulaboh. I could see lot of soldiers who were working day and night even though they also lost their families.
09.32 president talking to soldiers: He has lost his children….. He has lost his wife and child. His child was fourteen days old. ..We offer our condolences. The country will help you
10.15 colonel Geerhan Lantara: This area has already been cleared of dead bodies. But in other areas they are still lying around? Maybe yes. We can still smell it, right? Yes.
10.41 VO: Meulaboh, on the west coast of Aceh, was the closest city to the epicentre, and has suffered accordingly. More than half of the city has been washed away. Local commander Geerhan Lantara shows us around. This area is totally cut off from the outside world. …..
11.10 VO: Colonel Lantara shows the president a video of the disaster. Even this hardened veteran can’t control his emotions
11.17 sound up video: go aside, go aside!!
11.21 colonel Geerhan Lantara: this is our ambulance that also ended up in the water, sir. With the passengers inside? Yes with the passengers
11.32 colonel Geerhan Lantara: with only a jerrycan he is trying to save peoples lives
11.42 This boat nearly hit me, sir, really sir. Our ambulance has helped a lot of people but it was washed away with all passengers in it . ….This is the ambulance, all the dead bodies we put on top of the ambulance.
12.08 (president emotionally) I know Geerhan well, he is a tough officer, a good leader. When I heard their words, their presentation I was so touched. On the other hand I am really proud of him, he made correct decisions, he is brave and made correct decisions and he handles it really well to save the lives. I am really proud of him. Even I could see the eyes of lieutenant colonel Catur and one captain, who lost their wife and sons are still working seriously to help Geerhan to present to me the actions done by colonel Geerhan. So it is a mixed feeling of me seeing the situation, listening to what has been said by colonel Geerhan.
13.26 VO: After the disaster Colonel Lantara was promoted. He’s been accused of human rights abuses in East Timor, but the president says the charges aren’t true.
13.38 VO: A few months after the tsunami president Yudhoyono flies to Washington for his first official visit. Billions in aid money has been promised from all over the world. The American government alone pledged nearly a billion dollars.
13.53 president speaks in plane: During my meeting with president Bush the most important thing is a few talkingpoints. Bush likes to know what we want to achieve during the next five years. What our priorities are and how the United States can contribute to that. That’s what I want to make clear to him straight away.
14.10 voice of Bush: Good afternoon and welcome to the white house. We are joined by a very special quest, a close friend of America…..(interviewer:)Could you tell me the name of the president of Indonesia? No, sorry, it’s a woman isn’t it? Susilo Bambang Billijodjo.
14.35 Bush: president Yudhoyono from Indonesia, welcome mister president
14.47 J. Dennis Hastert, speaker of the House, We are very honoured to have with us the president of Indonesia. We are going to meet with him and talk things of our mutual interests between the people of Indonesia and certainly of the United States. We salute them for the work they have done after the devastating ‘tsunumi’ and we will continue to work with them. Mr president thank you very much
15.11 president Bush: Americans from all over our country from all walks of life used their time and talents and compassion to make a difference. Heck I even called on two former presidents. 41 and 42 Bush and Clinton, to join together to send a message, we are not talking politics, we are talking about people get their feet back on the ground, we are talking about saving lives. That’s the American spirit mr president.
15.46 president Yudhoyono: If I could be frank there are always elements in one country that are sometimes unhappy with what is done by other nations. In Indonesia also some elements are not happy with what America is doing. But some of them are not, so actually what was done by the United States in Aceh of course provides a positive thing that what is done by the US is not necessarily connected to politics. To other motives but also to their willingness to help others. Of course to me what is done by Australia, by the US and others will provide a positive impact to the people of Indonesia
16.46 VO: Yudhoyono reads a letter from an American girl to a girl from Aceh who was orphaned in the disaster.
16. 53 president; This is how Nada looks like.. (shows wrong paper) ..oh yes I am sorry, this is how Nada looks like. Nada Lutfia.
17.13 president: My dad, mom, older brother, younger brother have disappeared and now I live with my cousins. I hope you are healthy and well were you are. I am so glad that you are paying attention to us here. Your friend Nada. I think the world would be a better place if all of us start to have connections and have conversations the way Nada and Meggie did. Thank you very much.
17.50 president: For me this is about human kind, this is about humanity, the sisterhood between those two girls and I believe that president Bush was touched also listening to those letters. I believe that he realized that even a young girl from America is making friends with her sister in Aceh. (interviewer) You even made him cry I think, Bush. Yes even I was touched also. Did you ever cry after the tsunami? Yes I am an ordinary man, ordinary human being, every time I visited Aceh I was always touched. Sometimes my wife and I couldn’t stand very well, because I could really understand, I could feel in my heart the impact of the tsunami.
18.53 VO: It’s now a year since the tsunami devastated Aceh, and still almost half a million people are living in temporary accommodation, 75 thousand of them in tents. Yudhoyono admits that the reconstruction process is moving too slowly.
19.10 president: I realize that there are a lot of problems we are facing in the field to rebuild so many houses, more than 70.000 houses. We are now accelerating to process. We are facing difficulties because there is not enough local resources to use to accelerate the process. So I have instructed to my ministers to mobilize all resources all over the country. I was told also that compared to other nations in rebuilding the houses that it took time also. (interviewer)One of the problems was some bureaucratic delay in some ministries in Jakarta. I heard you got really angry with them at a cabinet meeting. Can U tell me what happened? Yes I did check why. Of course sometimes there are procedures to be followed and they don’t want to break the regulations because I am fighting corruption real hard, they are afraid that they will be blamed for not following the procedures. But I said to them ‘no’ this is urgent. (interviewer)So u had to use some tough words to the ministers to speed them up. That’s my job, that’s my task.
Music
21.06 president: we had planned this event already in January but then the tsunami hit Aceh so we decided to postpone it until the situation would improve.
President singing
21.36 president: I like to sing just to be relaxed, just to have a balance in my soul and body, so as a leader I can accomplish my mission
President singing