Megawati's Aceh visit

The mixed reactions that have greeted reports of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's apology for past government wrongdoings in Aceh and her intended visit there illustrate not only the difficulties that lie in the way of a reconciliation between Jakarta and the Acehnese, but the many misconceptions that exist regarding this westernmost of Indonesian provinces as well.

It is no coincidence that among all of Indonesia 30 provinces, only two have earned themselves the title of Special Region as a token of the Republic of Indonesia's gratitude for their outstanding contribution to Indonesia's independence during the war of independence in the 1940s and in the years immediately thereafter.

The first of those regions is the sultanate of Yogyakarta, which was not only one of the first territories of the former Netherlands East Indies to declare its full allegiance to the newborn republic immediately following the declaration of independence on Aug. 17, 1945, in Jakarta, but whose ruler, Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, also offered his territory and all of the sultanate's facilities to be used by the republican administration. After it became the Republic of Indonesia's wartime capital, Yogyakarta and its sultan time and again proved their unquestioning loyalty to the republic.

The second territory to earn the title of Special Region is Aceh. And while it can be said of Yogyakarta that without this region's selfless contribution it would have been difficult for the republic to get through the difficulties of the first months and years of the revolution, it may not be too much of an exaggeration to say that without the contribution of the Acehnese the Indonesian Republic might not have survived the relentless Dutch military assaults on the infant state.

Like Yogyakarta, Aceh declared its full allegiance to the republic almost immediately in the wake of the Indonesian declaration of independence. Bearing in mind that no foreign power -- either the Dutch or the Japanese -- had ever succeeded in imposing its de facto authority over the entire territory, one can easily imagine the magnitude of Aceh's voluntary sacrifice to the Republic of Indonesia.

Aceh not only accepted Indonesia's independence. When the blockade imposed by the Dutch on the republic began to really bite and people began to suffer from shortages of food and medicines, the people of Aceh started a drive to collect money to buy airplanes with which to break the blockade at least in part. In a matter of days enough money was collected to purchase two Dakota aircraft. Christened Seulawah by Sukarno, these two aircraft, RI-001 and RI-002, were the embryo which eventually grew into the Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesian Airways -- later renamed Garuda Indonesia.

That wasn't all. In December 1948, the Dutch invaded Yogyakarta and captured the entire republican top government leadership. A republican emergency government was set up in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, led by Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, which soon found it difficult to communicate both with the central guerrilla warfare leadership in Java and with the world outside. Again, the Acehnese came to the rescue by erecting a radio station at Cot Goh, near Kutaraja (now Banda Aceh), powerful enough to get its messages through not only to guerrilla base camps in Java, but as far as New York, where the republic had a legation at the United Nations led by L.N. Palar. And when Dutch military pressure made it hard for Sjafruddin's emergency government to remain in Bukittinggi, it was again Aceh which came to the rescue by offering Kutaraja as a temporary wartime capital for the Republic.

Those are merely a few examples of Aceh's contribution to the cause of Indonesia's independence. It is both sad and hard to comprehend that in the post-independence years during the 1950s and 1960s and beyond, Jakarta has totally failed to appreciate and reciprocate this goodwill and loyalty displayed by the people of Aceh during those early years. Instead, not only has Jakarta heaped injustice upon injustice on the Acehnese, it has responded by seeking to try to repress expressions of dissatisfaction by arms and force.

If Megawati's forthcoming visit is to bear any results, the first thing she should do is to openly acknowledge all the wrongs the central government in Jakarta has heaped on the people of Aceh so far. In principle, the non-violent approach to the Aceh problem which Megawati appears to prefer is a step in the right direction. However, without a specific acknowledgement of all the injustices and wrongs which Jakarta has committed in Aceh, an apology will have little meaning to the Acehnese, who have suffered for much too long.