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Jokowi makes time to pay special attention to Aceh

Tight schedule: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) congratulates newly inaugurated Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf (center) and deputy governor Nova Iriansyah after the swearing-in ceremony in Aceh on Wednesday

Haeril Halim and Hotli Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Banda Aceh
Thu, July 6, 2017

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Jokowi makes time to pay special attention to Aceh

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span class="inline inline-center">Tight schedule: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) congratulates newly inaugurated Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf (center) and deputy governor Nova Iriansyah after the swearing-in ceremony in Aceh on Wednesday. Jokowi was in Aceh on a stopover before continuing his official trip to Turkey and Germany.(JP/Hotli Simanjuntak)

A short transit to Aceh on Wednesday while he was heading to Turkey has made President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo the first president to attend the inauguration of an Acehnese governor since the implementation of its special autonomy in 2006.

Under the special autonomy, for the inauguration of the two new Acehnese leaders, Irwandi Yusuf and his deputy Nova Iriansyah, the home minister is authorized to be the representative of the President, unlike other governor ceremonies in the country.

A day before the inauguration, State Secretariat Pratikno gathered some representatives from the Home Ministry at the State Palace to find a way to accommodate Jokowi’s demand to attend the inauguration of Irwandi who is now leading Aceh until 2022 after winning the race in February.

Pratikno brought one message from Jokowi to the meeting: “Because I inaugurate other governors [but I cannot do Aceh’s], I want to give special attention to the Acehnese governor in any way possible.”

Unlike other governors who are inaugurated at the State Palace in Jakarta, the ceremony for Aceh’s leaders is done before provincial Mahkamah Syar’iyah during a plenary session at the Aceh Provincial Legislative Council (DPRA).

However, another problem hindered Jokowi’s intention: that he was scheduled to fly to Ankara for a state visit on Wednesday. Jokowi’s officials solved that by rescheduling the departure of the President’s flight from Jakarta from 8 a.m. to 7 a.m. to allow him to spend 30 minutes in Aceh to congratulate Irwandi, a former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leader, that day.

The inauguration of Irwandi and Nova took place at 9:15 a.m. by Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo. Jokowi, who arrived at the DPRA at 10:40 a.m., immediately delivered his congratulatory messages to the two local leaders before he rushed back to Iskandar Muda Airport to continue his journey to Ankara at 11:20 a.m.

The President asked the two to do their best to ensure security in the region and foster a better investment climate in Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost province, which experienced an insurgency between 1976 and 2005 instigated by GAM.

“Show that Aceh is safe so that investors will come. The image of Aceh as unsafe must really be vanquished,” Jokowi told Irwandi and Nova in the waiting room of the DPRA, where Jokowi also met with Irwandi’s predecessor Zaini Abdullah and Aceh Wali Nanggroe traditional leader Malik Mahmud Al-Haytar on Wednesday.

Jokowi’s efforts to make time for Aceh on his way to Turkey appeared as a move to win the hearts of the people in Aceh, a province that he failed to win during the 2014 presidential election. Jokowi has been trying to maintain good relations with the Acehnese since the early days of his presidency, for example by choosing the Islamic province as a place to celebrate Idul Fitri in 2015.

“The President really pays attention to the development and people in Aceh as he wanted to make a 30-minute visit to deliver the congratulatory messages,” said Tjahjo after the inauguration.

Irwandi was the first freely elected governor in post-conflict Aceh in 2007. He sought reelection during the 2012 Aceh gubernatorial race but lost. He tried again this year and won.

In his speech, Irwandi, who campaigned on a populist platform and pledged to provide free healthcare services for people residing in Aceh in a kind of program similar to the one introduced by the central government, said all people in Aceh must work hand in hand to make Aceh great. “Learning from past mistakes, we will try to improve Aceh to make it better to fairly manage its economic potential that will become a strong economic foundation for the people of Aceh,” Irwandi said.

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