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To improve peace process in Aceh, return to sanity
âBintang Bulan warnai HUT MoUâ (The star and crescent moon color the MoU anniversary celebrations) screamed the front-page banner of Serambi Indonesia, the only daily in Aceh, on Aug
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'Bintang Bulan warnai HUT MoU' (The star and crescent moon color the MoU anniversary celebrations) screamed the front-page banner of Serambi Indonesia, the only daily in Aceh, on Aug. 16. The subtitles were 'Gunshot prevents flag raising in front of Aceh Legislative Council' and 'Success in Lhok Seumawe'.
On Aug. 15, Aceh celebrated the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), ending the three-decade long bloody conflict that had killed between 20,000 to 30,000 Acehnese civilians, thousands of combatants on both sides and caused uncountable damage to public infrastructure and private property. Like the entire nation, Aceh also celebrated the 70th anniversary of national Independence Day. The local elections are 18 months away but campaigning salvos have already been fired.
Governor Zaini Abdullah and his deputy Muzakkir Manaf, both former top political and military GAM leaders, are in open conflict among candidates for governor, while former GAM 'defense minister' Zakaria Saman has also declared his intention to run, planting a giant red-and-white national flag on top of the Halimon mountain peak, where the late and most venerated T. Hasan di Tiro had 're-proclaimed' Aceh's independence on the site, thus considered sacred by GAM.
The Serambi headline reports referred to an attempt by students of the local State Islamic University (UIN) Ar-Raniry, to raise the star and crescent moon flag which for the Acehnese is the Aceh flag as mandated by the Helsinki peace accord, but for the military and police remains a symbol of the 'separatist' GAM struggle to secede from the unitary republic. The 'success in Lhok Seumawe' subtitle referred to the incident-free hoisting of the flag in front of the local legislative assembly building in the North Aceh capital by members of the Aceh Party (PA), the local party dominated by former GAM leaders that controls Aceh's executive and legislative branches.
Abdullah Saleh, chairman of the council's Commission I on law, politics and governance, also from the PA, forcefully tied the flag around the neck of Hamid Zain, the council secretary, last May when Zain forbade Saleh from raising it on the second flagpole next to the national flag ' as security personnel just looked on.
One cannot fail to see the contrast with the warning shot fired to disperse the students. Sneering comments deluded social media, noting how police and the military dared only to abuse the helpless 'little people' and wouldn't dare do anything against the powerful PA officionados.
The news from Aceh during the last few years has almost always been negative, especially when it touched on the so-called sharia that suggests Aceh is ripe to explode again into a new conflict, one that serves as a new center of Islamic radicalism. Ridiculously overblown reports are those of provincial or city rules of curfews, or that women cannot go out of the house without being accompanied by a male relative, cannot ride astride a motorcycle or cannot wear jeans.
Last year, the sadistic murders of two soldiers in what Vice President Jusuf Kalla stated was intelligence gathering work on drugs by the military intelligence services, purely a criminal case, prompted none other than Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, once Army chief of staff, to declare immediately without any investigation that it was perpetrated by ex-GAM combatants and that he was ready to re-impose the military operations in Aceh known as the military operations area (DOM) of 1989-1998, marked with massacres and unbridled military brutality against civilians.
The cycles of misleading reports and overreactions by high officials give the picture of Aceh as a 'no-go' area for outsiders. Major international news networks are quick to quote without double-checking their facts.
Yet a first time visitor to Aceh would be puzzled: 'Post-conflict? What conflict?' The picture of daily life in Banda Aceh, the capital of this supposedly self-governing region but which is for all intents and purposes still referred to by the central government as a province, is of a vibrant society very far removed from conflict. Its roads are clogged with new cars, thousands of motorcyclists racing dangerously on well-paved streets and endless construction projects, coffee shops open 24/7 and overcrowded new malls. Tabloids are full of reports of lawmakers having hanky-panky relationships with colleagues' wives, corruption, demonstrations ' all showing Aceh is clearly following in the national footsteps with gusto.
Indeed, Aceh is bedecked withcontradictions, unpredictability and uncertainties. But alas, Jakarta still considers it fit to impose a special cultural visa for those who want to conduct research or attend conferences. Aceh, for Jakarta, is still a conflict area not much different from Papua.
Aceh is passing through a dangerous phase of post-conflict transition that is running for too long without clear planning. Statistics point to the undeniable failure of the local government to move forward with all the money available. Economic growth of 1.65 percent last year was well below the national average of 5.2 percent, the lowest compared to other provinces.
In the last 10 years Aceh's governmental budget has reached more than Rp 100 trillion (US$7.2 billion), including the 'special autonomy' budget of Rp 42 trillion ' accorded by Jakarta as a compromise in Helsinki to paying 'war reparation' that would imply colonization, for the decades of pillaging Aceh's natural resources, with not very much to show.
The economy is in the doldrums because it depends entirely on government spending without any private investment. When the government is often only capable of spending less than 50 percent of its yearly budget, the market is deprived of cash flow, paralyzing business and industrial activities and increasing unemployment, which last year stood at 8.38 percent.
And when those unemployed include ex-combatants well-trained in violence and group loyalty and 'ready to die' discipline, things become really dangerous.
Religious radicalization has crept into Aceh in a gradual but certain way, pushing Aceh's traditionally moderate ulema to the sidelines, with politicians jumping onto the bandwagon to show they are more Islamic than the others.
Misguided autonomy policies far removed from what the clauses of the Helsinki MoU stipulate have enabled ambitious local politicians to come up with ridiculous rulings that shame most sane Acehnese in Aceh and beyond.
So we all know the problems, but what is the solution? Peace in Aceh was achieved through the Helsinki MoU. Those who think that now that GAM is in disarray and thus now is a golden opportunity to roll back the situation to the pre-MoU condition should be condemned severely. The Helsinki MoU is the best thing that has happened to the republic. The government should strive to implement it fully and sincerely and thus prevent the feeling among Acehnese that they were cheated every time they suffer a setback even though it is by their own doing.
There was a time when Indonesians would blame the Dutch colonialism for their own shortcomings. Let's not let the Acehnese fall into this same excuse, especially when it is justified.
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The writer is an independent international consultant on conflict resolution and post-conflict peace management, a former GAM negotiator in Helsinki, a leader of the Aceh National Party (PNA), and was 2011-2012 Weatherhead Fellow for International Affairs, Harvard University.
