Mega needs tender approach in Aceh: Acehnese figures
JAKARTA (JP): Acehnese legislators and community leaders appealed on Thursday for President Megawati Soekarnoputri to take concrete reconciliatory measures to resolve the prolonged Aceh problem during her visit to the strife-torn province next week.
Karimun Usman, a legislator of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, said the President should hold a "heart to heart" dialog with all elements of the Acehnese community, including the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), to listen to what they expected from the government to end the prolonged conflict.
"Both Acehnese officials and the President's aides should not engineer the meeting, but allow the Acehnese people to raise all of their problems to the surface so that the President knows what she has to do for Aceh," he told The Jakarta Post here on Thursday.
President Megawati was initially scheduled to leave for Aceh on Sept. 2, but the trip was then postponed until later next week. It is not yet clear what the President's itinerary in Aceh involves or how much time she will spend there.
Officials have said that during her visit the President will hold a dialogue with the Acehnese people and promote the newly signed Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam autonomy law, which gives the Acehnese more freedom in managing their own affairs.
Megawati said on Tuesday that the Acehnese should take full advantage of the special autonomy law, but at the same time she warned that separatist elements would be promptly crushed.
Farhan Hamid, a United Development Party (PPP) legislator, urged Megawati to end the military approach employed to deal with the Acehnese.
"Megawati must be able to end the military's cruelty and the police's arrogance in Aceh, which have sowed the seeds of hatred among the Acehnese toward the central government," he said.
He said the President's planned visit would be futile and leave the Acehnese people indifferent, just as her predecessors had done, unless she took sincere humanitarian actions to win the hearts of the Acehnese people, including the rebels.
Nurlip, an Acehnese Golkar Party legislator, agreed and said that the government, including the military and police, should act in line with anything the President promised during her visit.
"The Aceh problem will be able to be resolved quickly if the government, including security authorities and local administrations, have the political will to develop the province," he said.
Meanwhile, Bachtiar Aly, an Acehnese figure in Jakarta, called on the President to express her apology before the Acehnese during her visit and follow it up with concrete steps to create a reconciliatory relationship with them.
"Besides her recent apology, if Megawati makes another apology directly before the Acehnese in Aceh, it will certainly be valued significantly by the Acehnese," he said.
The apology, however, should be followed up by a comprehensive policy, such as compensating relatives of victims of human rights violations, building an Islamic center, providing free-of-charge education services and creating a special post office box to channel local people's aspirations and complaints.
Bachtiar added that the visit would serve as a good chance for the President to deliver the promise made by her father, Indonesia's first president Sukarno, to make Aceh a special province under Islamic law.
"Megawati will be able to win the hearts of the Acehnese if she positions herself as a lovely sister, treats the Acehnese as a big family and listens to their true problems," he said. (rms)