Considering an alternative to the direct elections in Aceh

C. Effendi, Jakarta

The governor and 16 regency heads will end their tenures in the province of Aceh by the end of 2005. The earliest election for regency head should have been conducted in Aceh Barat regency by Dec. 5, 2004. Governor Abdullah Puteh, who is currently being detained by the Attorney General's Office and who is on trial in Jakarta on charges of corruption, will have to end his tenure on Nov. 25, 2005.

According to Law No. 18/2001 on special autonomy for Aceh and Law No. 2/2004 on direct elections for governors and regents, the Regional Election Commission in Banda Aceh will have to be ready to execute direct elections.

The main question is, are direct elections a possibility or simply a wishful thinking after the devastating earthquake and tsunami? So far, there is no legal option that makes it possible to delay the election process.

Chairman of Commission II at the House of Representatives, Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, offered a solution. The earthquake and tsunami in Aceh should be regarded, legally speaking, as force majeure, and therefore it is possible to delay the election process for the next two or three years until it is considered fit for the Acehnese people to participate in elections.

What needs to be done, according to Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, is to incorporate a special clause in the current government regulations concerning the direct elections in order to delay the elections for governor and regency heads in Aceh.

The questions that need to be pondered here are: Is it still possible to again empower the regency/provincial legislative assemblies to elect regency heads and the governor in Aceh? If that is the case, how legitimate is the election process?

With or without the earthquake and tsunami, the Acehnese has suffered from a long history of intimidation, economic mismanagement and military oppression.

Official documents from the Ministry of Home Affairs published in December 2004 reveal the implementation of the provincial government in Aceh is loaded with problems. Regencies like North Aceh, Bireun, Pidie, Aceh Timur and Aceh Besar are practically ungovernable.

Security threats, intimidation and mysterious shootings by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) cause fear among the majority of the local apparatus. Many of the local apparatus have decided either to collaborate secretly with the rebels or leave their regencies.

The situation is further worsened by the deep mistrust and suspicion among the local and provincial government apparatus. The civilian authority of the Aceh province suspect that a small number of government apparatus in Aceh use double-standards.

The authority also suspects their loyalty to the provincial government in Banda Aceh. Lack of discipline, corruption in various government programs, underqualified civil servants further complicate good governance in Aceh.

Most of the problems in Aceh are a reflection of the fact that Aceh has been under martial law, which affects almost all aspects of social, economic and political life in the province.

Aceh had a total population of 4,227,000 (2004 data). The provincial election commission divided Aceh into eight electoral regencies. The total number of seats in the Aceh Provincial Legislative Assembly is 69. Every member of the provincial assembly needs to have up to 61,260 to win a seat.

Other data shows that of the population of 4,227,000, 468,823 people live in coastal regions. It is difficult to gauge how many of these people survived the tsunami.

The dislocation of the majority of the Acehnese, who are used to living in coastal regions, will be the most difficult problem, since the majority of them are now in refugee camps scattered around the region.

It may take at least six months to gather the needed data throughout the province. The main concern is that the provincial and regental election commissions have the capacity to execute this difficult task given the fact that almost every agency in Aceh was affected by the tsunami.

The rational choice is of course to delay the elections until the whole process is thoroughly prepared.

As yet, it is still uncertain the number of tsunami victims among the provincial and regental government apparatus, and their positions. What is surely certain is that the provincial and regency governments in Aceh need new people who will be ready to occupy those vacant positions left behind by the tsunami victims.

Here lies the need to improve the capacity of the provincial and regency not only to cope with routine government problems, but also to deal with multitude effects of the crisis. Given the fact that the government in Aceh still needs to adjust itself to the current situation, it is questionable as to whether they are ready to execute direct elections in more than 16 regencies.

Delaying the elections in Aceh will be against the democratic rights of the Acehnese people, but holding direct elections in Aceh in the aftermath of the devastation is morally out of the question.

The only alternative is to empower the provincial and regency representative assemblies to conduct elections for governor and regency heads.

To ensure that the election process will be conducted in a democratic, transparent and legitimate manner, civil society needs to be engaged and help guarantee that the whole process is a true reflection of the aspirations of the Acehnese people. Here, the central government, especially the Ministry of Home Affairs and the central boards of political parties with majority seats both in the province as well as in the regencies, need to commit themselves that the whole selection process for regency heads will be thoroughly transparent and democratic.

Transparent and democratic elections of regency heads and the governor in Aceh can be a good start for the establishment of government based on the true aspirations of the Acehnese. Provincial and regency representative assemblies need to be empowered to organize the election process pending the completion of the whole process of the reconstruction of infrastructures in Aceh.

This is to be followed by the establishment of provincial and regency governments based on good governance in the entire region, monitored by the central government. It is against the very pride of the Acehnese to see before their eyes their governor being questioned by the attorney general on corruption charges, while the majority of the Acehnese are struggling between life and death amid the destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

The writer is a researcher at The Indonesian Institute, Center for Public Policy Research, Jakarta. He can be reached at cecep_effendi@yahoo.com.