Of the hearts and minds of the Acehnese

Aguswandi, Researcher, Indonesian Human Rights Campaign (TAPOL), London

Now that many months have elapsed since the imposition of martial law in Aceh, it is the right time to wonder about the hearts and minds of the Acehnese. Winning these two things was the fundamental objective of the government's decision to declare martial law in Aceh. So how have things progressed? Has Jakarta won the hearts and minds of these rebellious people?

The government would tell us that the answer can be found in Aceh. According to them, it can be seen in the military's ability to pursue their operations in Aceh. Or it can be found in the military's ability to kill and arrest numerous members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Or the answer can be seen in the fact that many Acehnese are now helping the military in the operation against GAM. Or in the fact that many people are enthusiastically joining militia groups.

In short, we are told we can judge how well the government is doing in its bid to win Acehnese hearts and minds by looking at all these things happening in Aceh. Seeing Aceh's present condition, the military commanders and politicians in Jakarta argue that they are winning in Aceh.

But this cannot be true, because the truth about the hearts and the minds of the Acehnese was never really determined in Aceh. It was, and still is, determined in Jakarta. It is in the recent decision by the Supreme Court to acquit the still-serving House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung on his corruption conviction.

It is in the prospect of a war criminal being a candidate for the next president of Indonesia. It is also in the prospect of freedom of the press being threatened in Indonesia. It can also be found in the fact that Soeharto is still smiling and looks well while the law cannot touch him.

Jakarta is actually the place where we should judge the conflict in Aceh. This is where the real battle to win the hearts and the minds of the Acehnese is taking place. This is because the sources of the conflict are not in Aceh but in Jakarta.

The root of the Aceh problem lies in the way in which the Indonesian state is operated by politicians and the elite in Jakarta. It is also dependent on the success of the reform process, change and the struggle for democracy and to create a better Indonesia. Indeed, only a better Indonesia can win the hearts and minds of most Acehnese.

Unfortunately, Indonesia does not seem to be getting better in any way. Reform is uncertain, corruption is rampant and impunity is still an acute problem. Not until a real process of change in Indonesia improves these things do the problems in Aceh have a chance to be solved.

It is a distortion to reduce the conflict in Aceh simply to rhetoric about the threat of separatism provoked by GAM. It is meaningless to talk about the solution to the problem in Aceh as being about winning the hearts and minds of the Acehnese, without talking about Indonesia.

It is meaningless to tell the story of the conflict in Aceh without also trying to tell the story of Jakarta politics. Any account about the failure to solve the problem in Aceh must recognize that it is also a portrait of the failures of modern Indonesian

The simplification and distortion of the conflict in Aceh has led to a single solution: military operation. When the conflict is perceived as being about GAM's weapons and its unthinkable demands alone, the answer must be a military operation to deal with the problem. This explains the latest statement by the martial commander in Aceh, who said the military presence in Aceh is to defend the national integrity of Indonesia.

The territorial integrity of Indonesian can never be defended by sending troops to Aceh. Aceh's lack of integration with Indonesia is caused by the way the Indonesian state is run by people in Jakarta. As we have seen over time, those in Jakarta are destroying Indonesia every day.

This is the problem. The conflict in Aceh is a political conflict, perpetuated primarily by Jakarta itself; by the messy politics there and the persistent role of the Indonesian Military in politics, by the lack of hope that being within Indonesia will bring anything better.

Without trying to justify the violence in Aceh, the truth remains that the actual violence in Aceh can never be solved until the structural violence of Indonesia is solved. And structurally, the politics of Indonesia is exceptionally violent.

The recent decision to free Akbar Tandjung, the inability to touch Soeharto, the weakening of reform in Indonesia, all further contribute to losing the hearts and minds of the Acehnese. While these politicians and military leaders are destroying the integrity of Indonesia, the poor soldiers continue to be sent to Aceh to repair it.

However, this is an impossible task that the military will never be able to achieve. Because one thing that the military can never do is create a better Indonesia to convince the Acehnese that there is hope in being together instead of separate. A better Indonesia is in the hands of the politicians in Jakarta who are ruling this country.