Reigning in the military

Reigning in the military

Normalcy is a luxury for most Acehnese. Their province has
practically been in a perpetual state of war for as long as most
people can remember. War after war has been waged and fought
between the Indonesian Military and the separatist Free Aceh
Movement (GAM), with the civilian population caught squarely in
the middle.

After a series of military operations mounted by Jakarta under
various kinds of legal umbrella -- take your pick: military
operations area (DOM), martial law or a state of civil emergency
-- the government finally decided last week to grant the Acehnese
a whiff of freedom -- at least on paper -- when it resolved not
to renew the state of civil emergency when it ends this
Wednesday.

This decision will doubtless be viewed as a boon by the
Acehnese, who have suffered not only from war but also as a
result of the Boxing Day tsunami that wiped out most of the towns
and villages along Aceh's western coast. The new approach should
also help the Executing Agency for the Rehabilitation and
Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias, which has been given the huge
task of rebuilding Aceh's devastated infrastructure.

However, the decision not to renew the emergency is far, far
from being enough. It must be followed up by real action on the
ground. It is pointless just to lift the emergency if the
military remains the de facto power in the field, if the
military retains all of its combatants in Aceh, and if the
military has an undisclosed and unaccounted budget to spend.

But judging from past experience, and also from the statements
emanating from the military, there is faint hope that the lifting
of the emergency will bring any real improvement to the lives of
the Acehnese or the return of the normalcy enjoyed by their
fellow citizens in most other parts of the country.

Following the ending of the earlier military operations area
(DOM) policy, the Indonesian Military (TNI) was supposed to
reduce its presence in Aceh. On the contrary, however, it
actually strengthened its presence there and even revived the
Iskandar Muda territorial military command for Aceh -- justified
by the imposition of martial law on the province on May 18, 2003,
following the collapse of peace talks between the government and
GAM.

And now, after the government has decided not to renew the
emergency, the TNI says that it will not reduce the number of its
troops in Aceh. What a contradiction. We can only hope that this
TNI statement is meant solely to serve as a bargaining chip to
strengthen the government's hand in the current peace talks
with GAM. The issue of security arrangements in Aceh has
apparently been a sticking point during the current talks. Some
even worry that this issue could stall the talks altogether. But
we hope the government and GAM will be able to find enough common
ground to resolve this issue.

Whatever the results of the peace talks, we are of the opinion
that the military's presence in Aceh must be reduced, simply
because there is so much resentment against the military in the
province. There are abundant stories, and even jokes, among the
Acehnese testifying to the true nature of the Indonesian
Military. To restore law and order, the government should entrust
the task to the police -- with better preparation, of course, so
that they can truly win the trust of the Acehnese.

Also, the military has been less than transparent as regards
the funding of its operations in conflict areas, including Aceh.
The military spends vast amounts of money in such areas, while
the tales of malfeasance are legion, and yet we rarely see any
prosecutions for graft being brought against military officers.
Civilian officials may similarly be corrupt, but at least we can
prosecute them and send them to jail. The corruption prosecution
and jailing of Abdullah Puteh, the governor of Aceh, is a case in
point.

We have all heard news reports that just days after the
tsunami, a business group close to the military was asked to plan
the reconstruction of the town of Meulaboh in Aceh. Luckily, this
news appeared early enough to arouse public concern. However,
this does not guarantee that such deals are not at this very
moment being sealed in back rooms or will not take place in the
future, especially if the military continues to wield power in
Aceh. This would, obviously, hamper the reconstruction agency in
successfully fulfilling its mandate in the province.

It is essential for the government to ensure that the
reconstruction agency can work independently to ensure that no
corruption, collusion, nepotism and, equally importantly, no
blackmail occurs in the management of the Aceh rebuilding funds,
which are made up mostly of foreign money. Once corruption, or
worse blackmail, starts to rear its ugly head, foreign donors
will hold on to their money, and this will hurt the Acehnese more
than anyone else.

Nevertheless, we sincerely hope that all of these worries,
especially those about the ever-dominant role of the military in
Aceh, will turn out to be unwarranted. We hope that the military
itself will do its best for the country by facilitating civilian
rule in Aceh and the reconstruction agency in carrying out its
duty of serving the long-suffering Acehnese.