Lawmakers may deal Aceh peace agreement a blow

Lawmakers may deal Aceh peace agreement a blow

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government brushed aside on Wednesday any possibility of the
Aceh peace agreement faltering despite foreseeable political
moves in the House of Representatives that may keep the accord's
details and principles from actually working.

The hurdles, House legislators have said, could come as a
result of the many multi-interpretative points in the Memorandum
of Understanding signed with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Lawmakers are also upset that they were excluded from the
negotiations for the peace deal, despite many of the key elements
depending heavily on House support in order for them to
implemented.

"What happens if the House doesn't pass the bills that the
government has promised to GAM? Will the MOU break down and the
GAM people return to the mountains and resume their fight for
independence?" Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)
legislator Amris Hasan asked a hearing between House Commission I
on defense and foreign affairs and to several ministers involved
in the implementation of the peace accord.

Two previous peace agreements in 2000 and 2002 only lasted a
few months before breaking down.

A similar concern was expressed by Golkar legislator Happy
Bone Zulkarnaen who questioned the presence of a contingency plan
if the MOU fell apart.

"The multi-interpretative and implicit elements in the MOU
could disrupt the implementation (of the peace deal), and the
House has concerns over it because we're being dragged into it
yet we weren't involved in making it," he said.

Critics have claimed that many articles in the MOU were
subject to multiple interpretations, including the use of local
flags and symbols, forms of government in Aceh, local taxes and
legislation.

But the government has insisted that both parties are
committed to implementing the MOU under the concept of the
unitary republic of Indonesia and the 1945 Constitution.

"We don't want to think this as a short-lived peace, and the
nation will have to do their best to make sure that this deal
succeeds. We assume that we all have similar interpretations of
the MOU," Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security
Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto said in response to the legislators,
who later concluded that both the government and GAM needed to
completely align all possible interpretations of the MOU.

The government and GAM have given conflicting interpretations
over the retroactivity status of the planned human rights
tribunal stipulated in the MOU.

Regarding the House challenge, Minister of Information Sofyan
Djalil said the government would exhaust all efforts to persuade
the House factions to endorse the bills required to implement the
MOU, particularly those on the governing of Aceh and revision to
the special autonomy law for Aceh that would allow local parties
to contest elections in the province.

The new government arrangements in Aceh will require the House
to seek Aceh provincial government consent for all international
agreements, administrative measures and decisions that concern
Aceh. House members consider this requirement as undermining its
power.

"The 1945 Constitution, the autonomy law, or the special
autonomy law on Aceh don't mention such a thing. The Constitution
rules that the House has the authority to pass laws that apply to
all parts of Indonesia, including Aceh," said PDI-P legislator
Sutradara Gintings.

Sofyan admitted that the inclusion of the article was outside
current laws, but was agreed to due to fear among GAM people that
policies on Aceh would not reflect local aspirations.