'Make love, not war!' in the troubled Aceh<\/p>\n
Aboeprijadi Santoso, Radio Nederland, Amsterdam<\/p>\n
An Indonesian artist living in Cologne, Germany, raises
\nanxiety over problems in his country, the \"Aceh-puzzle.\"<\/p>\n
\"Why is it that they want to maintain the nation by fighting
\nagainst our brothers and sisters?\" says Yayak.<\/p>\n
Fears have grown that the next round of talks between the
\ngovernment in Jakarta and the Acehnese rebels GAM (Free Aceh
\nMovement) in Geneva may sooner or later end up with an escalation
\nof war.<\/p>\n
Already Jakarta hardliners' emergency calls have deepened the
\ncrisis in Aceh. Any escalation would perpetuate what is seen as
\nNew Order's habit of state violence, impoverishment and
\nsufferings at grass root level. As a result, there is a growing
\nalienation vis-a-vis state authorities among civil society. Three
\nexamples illustrate this perspective.<\/p>\n
It has been argued that Southeast Asian old states actually
\nmirror a theater. The American anthropologist Clifford Geertz
\nsuggests, all that mattered for such states was not so much the
\nmight and power, but the great cultural and moral superiority
\nthey claimed and displayed for the sake of their own
\naggrandizement.<\/p>\n
Today it seems just the other way around: It is the might and
\npower, as exemplified by its influence, geographic scale, and
\nmilitary might that mark modern nation-states.<\/p>\n
To people like Yayak, these state's businesses and symbols are
\nirrelevant -- \"it is human life that matters, isn't it?\" he
\ninsists. In a very similar way, the Dutch colonial-state and the
\nJavanese aristocrats were once seen as oppressive and irrelevant
\nby the Blora (Central Java)-based Saminist peasants.<\/p>\n
Yayak Iskra Ismaya, 46, an imaginative graphic-designer,
\npainter and folklore singer, painted vigorous images of state
\nrepression and of children. He was forced to leave his hometown
\nYogyakarta in 1992 because he had made a calendar of Indonesia's
\npro-democratic struggle allegedly humiliating Mr. and Madame
\nSoeharto.<\/p>\n
Yet he keeps his empathy and fighting spirit alive; he had
\nvisited Aceh and its \"war theater\" in 1989, helped aid agencies
\nassisting children in Thailand, India and Africa, and now embarks
\non a popular education project (School of Free People, Perguruan
\nRakyat Merdeka) in Indonesia. He recently introduced his song
\nCiliwung Merdeka (Free Ciliwung) calling for solidarity with
\nJakarta's marginalized people.<\/p>\n
Pipit Rochijat, 53, another example, is a witty ex-student,
\nwho abandoned his study in Berlin, Germany, to resist the
\nintimidation that the Indonesian military attaches put him
\nthrough in the 1980s. A prolific writer, he became well known as
\nhis essay Saya PKI atau non-PKI? (Am I PKI or non-PKI? --
\nreferring to the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party) was
\ntranslated and published by Cornell University's periodical
\nIndonesia in 1985.<\/p>\n
Pipit's internationally celebrated essay -- pointing to the
\nNew Order's brutal method and ugly reasoning as he describes the
\nmid-1960s massacres in East Java's Kediri -- put him in the same
\nniche as Yayak. He appears to suggest that the state's
\nobsessions, like with Hitler and Stalin, could easily lead to,
\nand be used to justify, a human tragedy.<\/p>\n
Otto Syamsuddin Ishak, 43, articulates similar views with deep
\nhumanitarian concerns as Yayak and Pipit. A perceptive
\nsociologist, who studied in Yogyakarta and used to live in Aceh,
\nhe focuses on injustice, repression and people's sufferings; his
\nbooks on Tengku Bantaqiah killings and \"Jakarta's panic\" (Dari
\nMaaf ke Panik Aceh, From Apologies to Panic over Aceh) should
\ncontribute efforts to understand present-day Aceh.<\/p>\n
\"The next Geneva meeting should at least agree on methods to
\ncontrol armed movements of both sides of the conflict that has
\nvictimized the civil society,\" he urges.<\/p>\n
Last year he witnessed the Sept. 11 attack as he crawled in
\nthe dust of Manhattan's streets. \"Even in New York, which was not
\na conflict area like my homeland Aceh, the security of people is
\nno longer assured. Not the state, but the common people were
\nbeing victimized. Yet, instead of human security, state security
\nhas since acquired a paramount importance; \"9\/11\" has pushed back
\nthe primacy of human rights,\" he concludes.<\/p>\n
The values of Yayak, Pipit, and Otto -- precisely because they
\nhave themselves been victimized by the impact of a brutal state
\nat home or abroad -- are relevant and reflect concerns on
\nproblems like Aceh and Papua.<\/p>\n
To share their concerns is to see the problems from the
\nvictims' perspective. Few in war-torn Aceh, except the security
\napparatus members, would ask -- to borrow Pipit's style -- the
\nsilly question \"Are you GAM or non-GAM?\" The question is
\nirrelevant since the problem obviously is not the label but the
\nreal injustice and the escalating violence. While the idea of
\n\"independent Aceh\" has naturally grown from this context, for
\nwhich one cannot blame the locals, it is the state politicians
\nand the military and the rebels, who were responsible for the
\nwar.<\/p>\n
Acehnese, who grew up in the midst of the conflict since the
\nlate-1980s and become pro-independent-minded, should not be
\npunished and forced to lick and scrap the words \"referendum\" and
\n\"freedom\" from the wall, whilst the dictator, generals and
\nofficers, who were responsible for the atrocities, enjoy absolute
\nimpunity. The Army has in fact lost any legitimacy to be part of
\nthe solution since they have been -- and remain -- part of the
\nproblem for decades.<\/p>\n
As a consequence, most Acehnese may by now be sympathetic to
\nthe idea of independence although this may not necessarily imply
\nactive support for the rebels. As both activists and locals in
\nAceh told this writer recently, the state will have to deal with
\nnot only GAM, but local independence aspiration.<\/p>\n
For once the spirit is out of the bottle, you cannot put it
\nback; to do so is to kill human beings that would provoke a
\ngreater tragedy. To win hearts and minds becomes increasingly
\ncritical.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's experience with East Timor has demonstrated that
\nits army failed to do just that. According to local human rights
\nNGO Kontras, South Aceh -- with a concentration of migrants,
\nreportedly a training ground for Army backed militias, and close
\nto strong GAM bases in West Aceh -- now has the second-highest
\nlevel of violence (after East Aceh). Recent arrests of foreign
\nobservers in that area may trigger Aceh, like East Timor, to be
\nclosed from the outside world. But, as the East Timor case has
\ntaught us, no bloodbaths will remain hidden behind the facade of
\npeace talks.<\/p>\n
Neither (Jakarta's desperate) ultimatum nor war-theater can
\nrestore people's trust. It never did anywhere on earth.
\nIncidentally, this is what Sri Lanka and the Tamil separatist
\nrebels have finally realized and agreed to pursue a peace process
\ndespite the enormous gap between them.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Indonesia's regional rebellions in the 1950s were
\nmuch less threatening as the rebel-officers were disgruntled
\ncorps-fellows without popular support. Unlike today-rebels, they
\nwere seen as part and parcel of the nation rather than a security
\nproblem in a resource-rich part of what is now felt as imposed
\nunitary state.<\/p>\n
Unless, therefore, Jakarta generals want to risk a greater
\nmayhem or losing Aceh, the one thing they must not do -- and the
\npoliticians should prevent -- is war. \"Make love, not war!\" said
\nYayak.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/make-love-not-war-in-the-troubled-aceh-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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