Approaches of affection in Aceh

Approaches of affection in Aceh

From Media Indonesia

To many people, the government's effort to resolve conflicts in Aceh is a reassertion of the arrogance of power. The recent massive deployment of armed forces provides ample evidence of this blatant arrogance.

It would not be surprising if the Aceh Freedom Movement (GAM) reacted by declaring war against the Republic of Indonesia. Why hasn't yet Indonesia -- a country colonized for ages -- been able to comprehend or feel the physical pain and psychological suffering associated with colonialism?

Resolving the conflicts in Aceh under the pretext of overcoming a threat to unity and sovereignty (separatism) will mean openly showing the government's feudalistic logic to the public. Once such as a stance is adopted and revealed, GAM and the Aceh people -- GAM are indeed Acehnese -- together will steadfastly fight against the lies of those in power. And it should be noted that, (why does the government still ignore the fact?), historically, Aceh has unrelentingly fought against injustice.

Military approaches (violence) should have long ago been abandoned, and instead diplomatic and cultural approaches, or other alternatives, been resorted to. I can understand how so frustrated the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the police have been in waging war against GAM guerrilla fighters and at the same time are facing the terror of being accused of breaching human rights. The above reasons should be sufficient to convince the government that it does not need to dispatch armed personnel to Aceh. That would be just like wasting the lives of soldiers and would show the government to be callous, having no feelings for humanity.

The Acehnese being Muslims, the government should send clerics, charismatic ulamas/religious leaders who have moral authority and credibility and who care about humanity and justice. And along with them, the government should also dispatch Muslim youths (of course the ones who meet the above qualification) to parley with their counterparts in Aceh. Why youths? First, social motivators there consist, too, of young people (note the referendum aspirations held by the Aceh Referendum Information Center). Second, some 20y years from now, it is some of these youths who will be sitting in office holding key positions in this state and Aceh. And if since the beginning, they (this young generation) have had the opportunity to contact with one another and share common views in resolving problems, it would certainly be easier for them to resolve problems that might arise later.

Aceh must be seen as a "father" to Indonesia about to leave his sons -- records in history prove that the Sukarno administration once showed regret and apologized to an Aceh figure, Daud Beureueh for a mistake in his policy, but, alas, the same mistake has again been repeated. If it is so assumed, hence, it is high time we adopted a new approach -- a diplomacy of affection. Diplomacy between children and parents, and this would certainly be more promising.

DASOPANG

Jakarta