67,000 civil servants in Aceh face loyalty test
67,000 civil servants in Aceh face loyalty test
Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Aceh
Amid the military operation to crush the separatist movement in
Aceh, the government has begun to screen a total of around 67,000
civil servants in Aceh to ensure their loyalty to the Unitary
Republic of Indonesia.
The provincial administration distributed on Wednesday a list
of 10 questions to all government offices in the province to be
answered by the civil servants.
"The questions focus on whether or not the civil servants
and/or their families are involved in the separatist movement,
whether they agree with what GAM is fighting for and their
response to GAM's struggle for Aceh's independence," secretary of
the provincial administration Tantawi Ishak said here on
Wednesday.
He added the screening was aimed at cleansing the bureaucracy
of elements of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Tantawi said the civil servants' answers to the questions
would be examined one by one and those who supported GAM or who
were involved in the separatist movement would be punished in
accordance with the law.
The law on public administration punishes civil servants who
fail to show their loyalty to the government through dismissal.
Tantawi conceded that the government could not detect whether
or not the civil servants were honest in answering the
questionnaire.
The screening was conducted in response to allegations that
civil servants provide political and financial support for the
separatist movement. The martial law administration arrested
three civil servants recently in Aceh Besar regency and three
members of the provincial legislature who allegedly supported the
armed rebellion in the province.
The suspects are still undergoing intensive interrogation.
Some 39 civil servants in East Aceh are facing dismissal
following their refusal to pledge loyalty to the state in a
ceremony in the regency recently although they had been invited
three times to the ceremony.
East Aceh regent Azman Usmanuddin said that some civil
servants who were known to be GAM sympathizers had not come to
their workplace since their recruitment.
He admitted that civil servants who sympathized with the
movement have made trouble in the regency but the local
administration had not taken action against them.
Azman said he had received many reports that civil servants
who were no longer loyal to the government had leaked sensitive
information to GAM.