Kalla upbeat House will support Aceh peace deal<\/p>\n
Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Vice President Jusuf Kalla has expressed his optimism that
\nlegislators will support the recently signed Aceh peace deal,
\ndespite their initial reluctance to do so.<\/p>\n
\"I have a feeling that the DPR will support the deal,\" he told
\nthe Jakarta Editors Club in his official residence on Jl.
\nDiponegoro in Central Jakarta on Sunday night referring to the
\nHouse of Representatives. \"For sure, Golkar is behind the truce.\"<\/p>\n
Golkar, which Kalla chairs, constitutes more than one-fifth of
\nthe 550-strong House. With support from other party factions of
\nthe House, he said, he was confident that they would support the
\npeace agreement.<\/p>\n
Kalla was accompanied by Minister of Justice and Human Rights
\nHamid Awaluddin at the event. Coordinating Minister for
\nPolitical, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto, who was
\npresent at Kalla's residence, left early for another engagement.<\/p>\n
The House will grill the government on Wednesday about the
\ndetails of the deal that has harvested some harsh criticism after
\nthe agreement was made public only after the signing of the
\nMemorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Helsinki on Aug. 15.<\/p>\n
House support, however, is not binding, since the Constitution
\nonly says that the government should \"take into account\" the
\nopinion of the House.<\/p>\n
Kalla lashed out at critics who say that Aceh rebels will soon
\ntake over power now that the peace deal has been signed.<\/p>\n
When asked why the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was not dissolved,
\nKalla said: \"If GAM is declared non-existent, whom are we going
\nto deal with (in implementing the peace agreement)?\" he asked.<\/p>\n
Dropping their demand for independence and laying down their
\nweapons, he said, constituted all that the government had been
\nafter.<\/p>\n
The legislators, who only learned about the details of the MOU
\nafter the signing, have said that the government should have
\nconsulted them prior to the Helsinki talks.<\/p>\n
\"The government did not want to bring the MOU to the DPR
\nbeforehand because it did not want to transform GAM's position
\ninto a state overnight,\" he said, referring to the House when
\nasked about it.<\/p>\n
Kalla acknowledged that the deal bears only the key points of
\nthe agreement.<\/p>\n
\"It is impossible to go into technical details in a peace
\nagreement,\" he said, while defending that the results had been in
\nline with what the government had wanted.<\/p>\n
He also acknowledged that there was bound to be some
\nconfusion, especially during the transition period from Aug. 15
\nto Aug. 31.<\/p>\n
Kalla requested that people be understanding in the event of
\nany glitches in the days to come.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the deal had been in line with the government's
\nstance, Kalla replied: \"Ninety-nine percent.\"<\/p>\n
The final agreement was almost the same as the government's
\noriginal draft, he said.<\/p>\n
Kalla has been credited for his key behind-the-scenes role in
\nthe Helsinki talks. As a minister under president Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri, Kalla initiated the peace talks in 2003, soon
\nafter the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement that was brokered by
\nthe Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre broke down.<\/p>\n
His deep attachment to the issue was evident when he went
\nthrough each of the 70-odd clauses of the deal with total ease
\nand confidence, joking at times \"it's as if I was playing a
\nlawyer\".<\/p>\n
\"Peace talks differ from a seminar or a symposium,\" Kalla
\nsaid, and it was wrong to treat the peace deal as the result of a
\nseminar or symposium.<\/p>\n
Unlike a seminar, he said, there were two parties in peace
\ntalks, each with their own extreme ideas.<\/p>\n
\"At one extreme, we wanted GAM to surrender, kiss the red-and-
\nwhite flag, lay down their arms and weapons; and on the other
\nextreme, they wanted nothing but independence.\"<\/p>\n
The peace deal, he said, was a compromise that emerged from
\nthese \"extreme\" positions.<\/p>\n
\"All agreements are a kind of compromise,\" Kalla said.<\/p>\n
He said he was grateful that the peace deal did not violate
\nthe Constitution or the law, or see any party lose face.<\/p>\n
\"Disagreement with the law, if any, is only because Aceh is a
\nspecial autonomy region,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Aceh and Papua are the only two special autonomy regions in
\nthe country.<\/p>",
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