Kuntoro Mangkusubroto:
I threw out the Aceh Master Plan

THE December 26, 2004, tsunami not only destroyed much of Aceh, it landed Kuntoro Mangkusubroto on the shores of Indonesia's westernmost province. Between 2005 and 2009, the Purwokerto-born graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), took on the monumental job of heading the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Board (BRR). "You only live once, why not take the chance," Kuntoro told Tempo, in an interview at the ITB School of Business and Management in South Jakarta, two weeks ago.

Under Kuntoro, BRR succeeded in building more than 140,000 new homes for victims of the tsunami, 1,000 health clinics, some 2,000 schools and 3,000 mosques. More than US$7 billion had been donated from governments around the world to the recovery process. The BRR programs is acknowledged as the most successful post-natural disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation program in the world.

December 23, 2014