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.