Aceh leaders pan call to end caning

The head of the Aceh Ulema Assembly Council (MPU) deplored Amnesty International’s call to eradicate the caning practice in Indonesia’s sharia-ruled province and said that caning was an already applied (positive) law that did not contradict any existing laws in Indonesia.

“The caning punishment is a qanun (regional law) practiced in Aceh, and this is an elaboration of the 1999 Law on Aceh’s special status and the 2001 Law on Special Autonomy for Aceh as the Province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. So it doesn’t contradict any national laws,” Muslem Ibrahim said as quoted by Kompas.com.

He added that international bodies, including the United Nations, should respect rules set by “any communities in the world”.

The head of the Aceh Adat Assembly, Badzuraman Ismail, said that none outside the Aceh and Indonesian government should intervene in Aceh’s regional law.

“Why should Aceh be the one protested about? Other advanced countries such as Malalysia and even Singapore and other countries have rules that are even bigger than this, such as hanging. Why don’t they make something out of that? So, so far there has been no problem regarding caning in Aceh because it is essentially about the learning process and not an emphasis on the punishment itself,” he said.