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t has been almost two months since Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and Jusuf Kalla were inaugurated as President and Vice President, on whom many place hope for justice and welfare. Similar expectations also come from Acehnese who have expressed confidence in the ability of the new leaders to bring about sustainable peace in Aceh. The reason is simply because Jokowi and Kalla are familiar figures in Aceh.

They have strong emotional relationships with Indonesia'€™s westernmost province. Jokowi spent around three years in Central Aceh being involved in his business, apart from being employed there, while Kalla is one of the initiators of negotiations that finally ended in the 2005 peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Thus, it is not too excessive for Acehnese to expect so much from them.

In sustaining peace in Aceh, three main issues still need to be addressed appropriately by Jokowi'€™s administration. The first is the implementation of Law No. 11/2006 on Aceh governance. Based on the law, the central government still needs to implement seven government regulations (PP), three presidential regulations (Perpres) and two Presidential Decrees (Keppres).

Moreover, according to Article 271 of the law, all these regulations should have been completed within two years after the law was enacted '€” meaning they should have been issued by then president Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono.

These include the PP on the revenue-sharing of oil and gas in Aceh'€™s territory between the province and Jakarta and the PP on transferring certain central government powers to Aceh.

The unfinished implementation of these regulations does not mean that Yudhoyono was not serious about solving the problems; nevertheless, the process has become stagnant. Now, this '€œunfinished story'€ has become the task and responsibility of Jokowi'€™s administration. Aceh'€™s people believe that Jokowi and Kalla should complete those remaining regulations as soon as possible.

The second issue is the demand for forming new provinces in Aceh. Residents from the central, western and southern part of Aceh are demanding their own provinces, to be known as the areas of Aceh Leuser Antara (ALA) and Aceh Barat Selatan (ABAS). They argue that the reason for them is the need to speed up development in the areas as the current provincial government pays little attention to them. Therefore, they want to separate themselves from Aceh province.

However, dividing Aceh into several provinces may affect today'€™s fragile peace, as the 2006 law clearly refers to one Aceh province. Thus, if the central government agrees to establish new provinces, the provincial administration now ruled by former GAM combatants would likely decline the proposal and that would bring about new tension between Jakarta and Aceh.

Unless permanent peace has been achieved, now would not be the best time to implement the idea. But permanent peace does not yet exist in Aceh, as is made clear by the uncompleted regulations to implement the 2006 law. Therefore, all parties, including the central government, should focus on how to build permanent peace in Aceh by carrying out the remaining work under the law.

The third issue is the intention of the Home Affairs Ministry to evaluate some bylaws or qanun '€” the Aceh bylaws based on sharia. This idea has surprised many in Aceh because they suspect that by evaluating the qanun, especially the Islamic criminal code (Qanun Jinayah), the central government would ignore the exclusive right of Aceh to issue sharia-based bylaws.

Indeed, the central government holds the authority to evaluate any bylaw. However, the central government must ensure that the purpose of evaluating the qanun is merely to synchronize and harmonize them with other regulations, not to ignore the privileges given to Aceh through the above Law No. 11/2006.

To ensure that any evaluation of bylaws, particularly the controversial Acehnese criminal code, can be accepted by many parties in Aceh, the central government should involve related parties such as public figures, ulema and civil society in the evaluation process.

To conclude, these three crucial issues should be addressed proportionally and be used as starting points to improve Aceh'€™s future. Acehnese hope that under Jokowi'€™s administration they might at last spend less energy on political matters.

Now they want to spend more time thinking about improving the economy and the education of their children '€” and the ball is in the court of Jokowi and Kalla.