Survivors' relocation requires heart, wisdom

Totok Amin Soefijanto, Boston, Massachusetts

Machiavelli said: "It is better to be feared than to be loved." Using this principal, many politicians have ordered brutal and inhumane treatment of their opponents and critics, and even their own inner circle, to keep a grip on power.

The Machiavellian approach is cited here to discuss the recent events in post-tsunami Aceh, where the Indonesian government has laid out a master plan of reconstruction, with the help of other nations, multinationals and international organizations, to rebuild the disaster areas.

One of the important reconstruction policies is the relocation of tsunami survivors and the redrawing of the urban development plan in Banda Aceh and other districts and municipalities effected by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

No one can hide the fact that Aceh is still under a state of civil emergency. The Indonesian government has been fighting and trying to eradicate the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for years. This natural disaster is unlikely to change this.

In this regard, there are two schools of thought when it comes to counterinsurgency. The first school of thought is the hearts and minds approach, which utilizes development to reduce the desire to join the insurgency.

The second school is coercion, which employs military force to undermine the insurgents' opportunity to fight. Some experts have observed that both schools have utilized population relocation as a favored strategy. In fact, according to Kelly M. Greenhill, an MIT graduate and postdoctorate fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, this strategy is not always successful.

After studying dozens of guerrilla wars all over the world, she concluded in a paper titled Draining the Sea, or Feeding the Fire?: The Efficacy of Population Relocation in Counterinsurgency Operations that the key to success in population relocations is total co-optation and profound brutality. Luckily or not, she did not mention Aceh.

Population relocation is a logical step to diminish insurgents' capacity to survive. It is like draining the water from the sea so the fish will suffer. We know that Mao's guerrilla war doctrine saw the population as the water and the insurgents as the fish. Without the "water", the "fish" will die.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has been fighting the rebels in Aceh for decades, and yet we have seen little progress. Martial law and a state of civil emergency over the last year and a half have had a significant effect in improving the Indonesian government's authority over the region, but we have seen little evidence that this normalcy will last long because coercion and force can hardly win the hearts and minds of the people, which is the most important factor in GAM's survival.

So far, population relocation has been implemented successfully in three countries: The Malaya Emergency (1948- 1960), Venezuela (1960s) and Turkey (1984-1990s). Turkey is an especially interesting case.

The secular-Islamic nation has successfully crippled the left- leaning rebel Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in the southeast by implementing a combination of total co-optation and limited coercion in its population relocation strategy. The central government in Ankara relocated the Kurdish population into several spots and then improved the infrastructure, granted economic autonomy and cultural freedom.

This policy certainly drained the Kurdistan rebels' ability to fight because many Kurds enjoying newfound economic prosperity turned against them. Indeed, the reason Ankara spent billions on a guerrilla war in a region that has minimal natural resources was to unite the nation and retain its stature as the former Ottoman global superpower. What can we learn from this case?

People revolt because they think life can be better. Tocqueville said that revolution or rebellion erupted because of "unfulfilled expectations". Some Acehnese bought into the idea that they can live better than today, so they joined or supported the insurgency.

We often hear sad stories about a lack of infrastructure in Aceh despite its abundant natural resources. The Dec. 26 tsunami has proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Indonesian government, allowing it to review its past policies in Aceh.

Jakarta can show its wisdom and thoughtfulness by relocating the survivors to proper locations with better infrastructure, provide houses to homeless survivors and preserve the ownership rights of those whose houses were demolished by the tsunami. This is hopefully not wishful thinking considering the international relief funds that have poured in, in addition to Aceh's existing revenue from natural resources.

In the future, the government can expand this approach to other districts and municipalities in Aceh province that have been left behind, and other provinces in Indonesia. Population relocation as part of a grand reconstruction plan in Aceh should take into consideration the fact that Aceh is a deciding factor in the future of the Republic of Indonesia. If we fail now, then we will be failing for good.

The Indonesian government should take a humanitarian approach and disregard policies and actions that encourage profound brutality. What the Acehnese face today is being watched carefully by other Indonesian citizens.

Therefore, it is wise to twist Machiavelli's approach in our nation-building project and keep Indonesia united. We should win the hearts and minds of the Acehnese. To achieve that goal, we must aim to be loved rather than feared.

The writer is an adjunct staff at Boston University's School of Education and a researcher with Harvard University's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. He can be reached at totok@fulbrightweb.org.