More self-government offers way out of Aceh strife

More self-government offers way out of Aceh strife

By Lee Kim Chew

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: Acehnese separatism is a festering problem that Jakarta has proved incapable of solving for the past two decades because it has relied largely on force rather than persuasion to end the rebellion.

The political leaders in Jakarta are also too preoccupied with their own power struggles to give Aceh the attention it deserves.

It remains to be seen how decentralization and the new autonomy laws that are going to be implemented next year for all Indonesian provinces will benefit the ordinary Acehnese.

The local authorities will get more powers and more funds, but because of corruption and inertia, there are doubts that the lot of ordinary Acehnese will improve dramatically.

It is not hard for the separatists to keep the war going. Poverty is as real an enemy to the central government as the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is.

The current talks in Geneva between the government and GAM are about a cessation of armed hostilities, not about Acehnese independence.

Though the truce has been violated by both sides, it is important for Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to keep the talks going.

Mawardi Ismail, a law lecturer in Banda Aceh's Syah Kuala University and former Golkar MP in the House of Representatives, thinks that the Geneva talks could lead to a political solution in Aceh.

"The immediate question is how to stop the violence and start a dialog," he said. "The Acehnese demand for outright independence is a last resort. Special autonomy may be a way to independence. It could sow the seeds of a new state."

Special autonomy for Aceh will mean local self-government in all except three key areas, for which Jakarta has sole responsibility: foreign policy, monetary policy and defense.

If special autonomy is an effective way to improve the people's welfare, the Acehnese demand to break away from Indonesia will become less pressing.

But the Acehnese are a fiercely independent and emotional people, and they have about 12 different words to describe treachery, according to Ahmad Humam Hamid, a lecturer in Syah Kuala University.

To GAM, the Acehnese who do not fight the central government are cowards, and those who work closely with it are traitors.

To be sure, some Acehnese have their feet in two camps. Notwithstanding the popular sentiments for statehood, some leaders in Jakarta believe that there are enough Acehnese who will want to remain as part of Indonesia if they can get a better deal.

President Abdurrahman is determined to press on with political talks to get the Acehnese to accept special autonomy, but the GAM rebels, gunning for statehood, seem undecided over what to do next beyond bearing arms and restating their maximum demand.

Jakarta cannot yield to the insurgents simply because Aceh's breakaway will trigger Indonesia's break-up. It is not just that the two sides are poles apart.

The difficulty now is the lack of trust between them. The security forces raided the place where GAM's military commander Abdullah Syafeii recently met President Abdurrahman's former aide, Bondan Gunawan, secretly, in what turned out to be a botched attempt to build bridges between the government and the rebel leaders.

The mutual suspicions make it harder for them to compromise. Said one Acehnese, a staunch GAM supporter: "President Abdurrahman cannot be trusted. Today, he says this. Tomorrow, it's something else."

As the separatist war hots up, Acehnese activists who campaign strongly for independence get abducted, sometimes murdered. The Aceh Referendum Information Center, or Sira, had become a military target, said its chairman, Muhammad Nazar, after two of its activists were hauled in by the secret police.

Even the non-governmental organizations doing humanitarian work in Aceh labor under a cloud. The police and military in Aceh are suspicious about their activities, particularly when they deal with Acehnese who are suspected of having rebel connections.

Distrust breeds distrust and much else. At the well-guarded PT Arun gas plants in Lhokseumawe, the calm in the vast complex belies the tension in the East Aceh town.

The local Acehnese resent the Javanese who invariably get the plum jobs. The Arun housing complex, once reserved for expatriates, is now occupied by Acehnese.

The foreigners left when the security situation deteriorated in recent years.

Most of the Javanese executives in PT Arun have retreated to the relative safety of Medan in the south.

Like all long-running conflicts, Aceh is a tangle of conflicting interests, and in the scramble for advantage, truth is among the first casualties. The government and the rebels accuse each other of perpetuating the violence in this resource- rich, but poor and undeveloped province.

The separatist war, far from finished, is not simply about the stubborn Acehnese struggle for independence. It is also a story about the gross abuse and neglect of the Acehnese by the central authorities during the Soeharto years.

President Abdurrahman or any Indonesian leader cannot hope to make peace, let alone win over the Acehnese, unless the critical issues are addressed.

This means not just giving them a better deal, but also justice and reparations for gross human-rights violations under the old regime.

Sheer force alone and mere promises from Jakarta are not going to solve the Aceh problem. For the Acehnese, they have to forget independence, look beyond the violence and seek reconciliation. If not, the war goes on.

The writer is the chief regional correspondent of The Straits Times.

-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network