Govt wastes opportunity to resolve separatism issue

Govt wastes opportunity to resolve separatism issue

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has wasted a golden opportunity to resolve the
secession issue in Aceh and Papua by failing to show goodwill to
the people of the two resource-rich provinces, further
complicating the matter, an expert said.

Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group said here on
Thursday that the government's failure to prosecute military
personnel accused of human rights abuses in Aceh and its half-
hearted implementation of special autonomy in Papua had made it
difficult to address rebellions in the two provinces.

"I believe a focus by Jakarta on establishing responsive and
accountable local governments in the immediate aftermath of
(president) Soeharto's resignation might have put a significant
damper on the growth of these movements.

"And even five years later, I believe that good governance
remains a key to reducing the alienation of people in Aceh and
Papua," she told an international conference on conflict in the
Asia Pacific jointly organized by the Management of Social
Transformation (MOST)-UNESCO and the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (LIPI).

Jones, however, added: "I don't believe any of the post-
Soeharto governments have treated the issue seriously."

The end of Soeharto's authoritarian rule in May 1998 saw an
increase in demands for independence in the two provinces.

Regarding Aceh, Jones said she had been told by local
councillors there that had the government brought one officer to
trial in the period between May and December 1998, Jakarta could
have generated enormous support from the Acehnese.

She said the horrors of the decade-long military operation
zone (DOM) between 1989 and 1999 were revealed for only seven
months after Soeharto's resignation, and went no further.

Under DOM, rampant human rights abuses were believed to take
place and left thousands of Acehnese dead.

Meanwhile, Papuans had put high hopes on the special autonomy
law, which would enable the province to generate much more
revenue, she said.

Jones said that if properly implemented and given a chance to
work, the law could have produced the most responsive and
representative government Papua had ever had.

"And even if it were implemented poorly, at least it would be
Papuans and the Jakarta elite responsible," she said.

However, the Megawati Soekarnoputri government first prevented
the establishment of one key institution, the Papuan People's
Council (MRP), which was central to the whole autonomy package,
Jones said.

Then, in the name of more efficient delivery of services --
but in fact as an effort to weaken the independence movement --
it undercut the entire law by issuing an instruction last January
to divide the province into three, she said.

By reversing autonomy, Jakarta undermined the moderate
intellectuals who were willing to give autonomy a chance, who
could have acted as a bridge to the proindependence leaders and
who probably stood the best chance of acting as advisers to the
autonomous government and ensuring that it acted responsibly, she
said.

Another speaker, professor of peace studies and 1987
Alternative Nobel Peace Prize winner Johan Galtung said conflict
in Indonesia was inevitable, due to the various differences in
its population.

Galtung said that naturally people wanted to be run by their
own kind, and in such a diverse society, conflict would surely
occur, which now and then would lead to violence.

"The general solution for the problem is called federalism,
and I predict that in 10 years time we will have the Federal
Republic of Indonesia," said Galtung, who won the Bajaj
International Award for promoting Ghandian values in 1993.

He was aware that federalism was somewhat forbidden in
Indonesia, whereas Indonesian in fact had little knowledge about
federalism.

He suggested that Indonesia learn about federalism and keep an
mind open about it as a possible solution to overcome conflict
and violence in the country.