it is very heart broken to know at one part of the country,people 'laugh' at your misery and hopelessness.

In a sense he is right - HOWEVER it came at a completely inappropriate time and the words were extremely badly chosen when hundreds of people whose entire livelihood depends living close to the coast lost their lives and hundreds are still missing.

And as an absolute affront he "excuses" himslef by mentioning that he saiud it "in a joking tone". This is very worng! An apology should be in place and not an excuse. The government which also he represents, even though he might not be aware of that should provide proper jobs so people are not forced to live close to potential danger zones.

Anyway, where is the army with its massive budget and equipment to help? A country still so much in awe for the army should see not some half hearted services from the troops but convoys of freight helicopters making thier way to these islands with the best they can give. That would be absolutely impressive (especially in a country like Indonesia which is extremely prone to natural disasters) and would explain the exaggerated budget for the army But I assume that a lot of the budget is already spent on useless fighter planes and various war games...

The House of Representatives Speaker, Marzuki Al, publically expressed views on victims of disasters, go beyond ignorance and arrogance. Blaming disaster victims for immorality or on their psychical location, is a show of contempt towards all victims of disasters, their families and their circumstances.

The lack of a direct apology afterwards, and explaining it away as joke, makes the situation worse and shows even more contempt for the victims.

I feel much respect for all the government agencies and NGO's who currently, under difficult circumstances and lack of resources, are providing relief and support for all victims of disasters in West Papua, Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Mentawai. And I would like to reassure the victims and their families that there are many government officials who are doing their utmost best to help them and do this because they care about their fellow indonesians.

I would love to have a disscussion with Mr Marzuki, but it will have to wait until I am back from Mentawai.

In the mean time maybe he could twitter in with the president SBY and his wife, to do a reality check about the victim's circumstances and perhaps find support for his brilliant idea to transmigrate an estimated 50 -80 million Indonesians from the current danger zones in Indonesia.

The president actually visits these victims to show his respect and support, a stark comparism to blame.

Deepak Mostert, Director NGO TREST Aid

Why is it that most Indonesian politicians seem to say something stupid every time they open their mouths?

Technically he was right. Insensitive though. Right observation at a wrong time. People living way too close to sea shore and living in the slopes of active volcano's are vulnerable to natural disasters. They should know better. Govt can have plans to relocate them to geographically safer areas in order to avoid future disasters. That's why every time there is a natural disaster in Indonesia, there is a huge number of causalities. But the trouble is that people are overly emotional and not exactly reasonable in this situation.