Of the hearts and minds of the Acehnese

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.