CHAPTER 4 – Aceh, Here We Come
During those days it was definitely not easy to go to Aceh. I knew that the area had become the hottest destination on earth. It was as if the area exerted a magnetic force that was even stronger than the attraction of Bali, Hawaii, the Caribbean, or any famous tourist destination you could name . At first, however, I thought the rushed and hectic situation was just like that at the end of the fasting period when everybody was also frantically trying to travel back home to their villages.
At that time only the official flag carrier Garuda Indonesia provided flights to Aceh. Predictably, there were no empty seats; all were fully booked and the increased price usually applied by the airline during peak seasons failed to act as a barrier. People went in hordes to Aceh; they were people who wanted to look up their relatives, volunteers or just those who were curious to get firsthand information: they all wanted to go to Aceh.
Some airlines then offered free flights. Adam Air, for example, invited volunteers to fly to Aceh free of charge. But finding a free flight was also not at all easy. Thousands fought to get the free seats and all claimed to be eligible for priority treatment.
By riding tandem on one of the many hired motorcycles, I went to Adam Air’s headquarters at Cengkareng, West Jakarta. I tried to meet those who had the authority to decide who got the free seats that the airline was offering. Some airline officials gave me the look of “can you really do something over there?” “Are you aware that every seat is extremely valuable?” said Gunawan Suherman, President Director of Adam Air.
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Wartawan Tempo sejak 1998. Menjelajah berbagai desk, antara lain ekonomi, nasional, kesehatan, sains, gaya hidup, dan investigasi. Sejak Januari 2009 ditugasi menjadi Direktur Eksekutif Institut Tempo, sebuah lembaga yang dicita-citakan menjadi pusat pengembangan jurnalistik di Indonesia. Lulusan Fakultas Biologi, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, tahun 1996. Setelah lulus kuliah, bergabung dengan Majalah Warta Ekonomi (1996) sebagai staf riset dan kemudian menjadi reporter di majalah Panji Masyarakat (1997).