Megawati's Aceh visit

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.