Improving Pentahelix: A reflection from Indonesia’s disaster management experience
You may have heard about this pentahelix. One of the most discussed multi-stakeholder-approach, pentahelix has extended its application to the field of disaster management. Recently, this concept has been discussed, and implemented to some extent, by the Indonesian department for disaster management called BNPB. Head of the organization, Doni Monardo has started the adoption of the approach and some positive results have emerged.
Pentahelix at glance
Pentahelix, to make it simple, can be interpreted as a framework to optimize the results of activities or works through multi-stakeholders engagement. There are five parties that must be taken into account in terms of their roles, interests, and characters. They are administration (government), society (people), business/investors, knowledge (researchers), and media.
The framework initially only consisted three parties (government — market — research), then became four (government — market — research — community), until then it became five as mentioned above.
In another context, the concept of pentahelix was made into various applications, in order to achieve specific goals, the positive ones for sure. One of them is the development of pentahelix which involves ABCGM elements: academics, business, community, government, and the media. The key word remains the same: Synergy.
In the hands of the Head of BNPB (Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management) Doni Monardo, the Pentahelix concept suddenly contextualizes into an innovative approach for disaster management.
Well, talking about pentahelix, as a disaster recovery and management leader, Doni has been applying the framework to his daily tasks. In that sense, the synergy that becomes the pentahelix spirit is not only for business purposes, but also for disaster management.
In fact, in the hands of someone, especially a leader, who has such a creative character leader, this approach can be a magic key that can enable ideal and maximum results. To me, pentahelix is also a kind of supercar that brings the driver to be an agent of change.
Serving as head of BNPB since January 9, 2019, Doni has instilled the pentahelix ‘doctrine’ in the minds of all of his staff from the national, provincial to district levels, especially those from the first and second echelons.
“Disaster prevention and management cannot be carried out by one party. In this case, pentahelix is an answer. Pentahelix, though, is subject to adjustments in pre-disaster, emergency response and post-disaster management. Because, characters of disaster-related problems are different from one another and so the local aspects that have to also be considered,” said Doni on one occasion.
A trident: a pentahelix improvement
An army lieutenant general, Doni then added two other elements that complement pentahelix to be a “trident weapon” for BNPB when carrying out state duties.
The two other elements are, the spirit of mutual cooperation and the spirit of doing good deeds. There comes the trident: synergy (pentahelix), mutual cooperation, and the spirit of doing good deeds.
Doni once remembered the speech of Indonesia’s founding father, Presiden Sukarno on June 1, 1945, which was later formulated into Indonesia’s foundational values, Pancasila. In his speech, Bung Karno — President Sukarno’s nickname, offered the concept of state ideology which were five in number. Of the five, they can be shortened into three. Those five elements can then be crystalized into one that is called mutual cooperation or gotong royong in Indonesian.
“(Our mutual cooperation is) the soul of the Indonesian people. (This is) our nation’s tradition that does not exist in other nations. Mutual cooperation is the pure self of the Indonesian people, and I believe that if it is a soul, it will never fade. We just need to keep and cultivate it, “said Doni too.
Mutual cooperation is not merely cooperation, and is not enough to be translated into synergy. In the spirit of mutual cooperation, there is an understanding of sincerity, togetherness in ups and downs, willing to sacrifice, and selflessness.
“Therefore, pentahelix in Indonesian practical context, is a spirit of mutual cooperation,” said Doni who is an army officer that cares about the environment.
The word “mutual cooperation” has a magical meaning for the Indonesian people. Once upon a time, President Sukarno said, “Mutual cooperation is like working all out with our blood and bones, struggling till our last blood and sweat drop, for the happiness of all. Marching together for mutual interests. Of all for all!”
The concept of “mutual cooperation” allows Indonesians to work hard on establishing the nation and its character building. Through the mutual cooperation spirit, Bung Karno survived his nation, Indonesia, and let it to become a nation with great and tough mentality.
“How great it is, if our nation’s identity, our mutual cooperation identity is used for disaster management. All elements of the nation, marching together … together to save the environment, while dreaming of inheriting a better environment to the next generation, “Doni once said fiercely while explaining that pentahelix is also the soul of the Pancasila in this millennial era.
Well, on top of those two elements, synergy and mutual cooperation, Doni added one more important factor, namely the spirit of doing good deeds. This spirit is a universal principle, regardless of ethnicity, religion, and human race.
“If in human beings there is a good side in his heart, then that is what we must encourage,” he added.
To the Muslim society, as the majority of the Indonesian people. Doni Monardo quotes the Quran from the Al-Baqarah surah verse 148 about the nature of competing in goodness or ‘fastabiqul khairat’. The verse reads:
“And for each people there is a qibla (direction for himself) towards which he faces. Then go compete (in making) goodness. Wherever you are, Allah will gather you all (on the Day of Judgment). Allah is Almighty over everything.” (Quran 2: 148).
In the end, this short piece may not suit your pursuit of knowledge on what and how pentahelix is. But to some sort, Doni’s thoughts and experience have made it arguably more alive and complete. The pentahelix-gotong royong-fastabiqul khairat trident, as discussed above, can be our inspiration to improve on our works not only in disaster management, but also for other positive purposes (*).
