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