What have we achieved?

After two days of talks about the domestic problem of Aceh, held in a foreign country, under the umbrella of the Henry Dunant Center, and attended by people from the U.S., Great Britain, Thailand and other countries, Indonesia has achieved nothing concrete. We have been taught by our chief negotiator to respect God's creatures, but fundamental topics like a cease-fire and the acceptance that Aceh is part and will stay part of the Republic of Indonesia are still up in the air. Even the autonomy law (for Aceh) will only be used as a starting point for an all-inclusive dialog in the year 2003 or 2004.

So the victory, as in previous talks, is on the side of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and the only thing the Republic can do is hide this political defeat by pointing to the shortcomings the central government must take steps to overcome, which are:

* The government must act more generously.

* The government must bring about solid coordination between the relevant departments, because we need the support of every single Indonesian.

* The military should be reformed because it plays an important role, both negatively and positively.

From the explanation of our chief negotiator, I got the impression that GAM has done nothing wrong. The Indonesian government even plans to capitulate to GAM by considering the possibility of reducing troop numbers in Aceh. I am happy to read that the military chief, Adm. Widodo, refused to give any comment on this subject.

I have the feeling that the foreign minister is also not too happy with the results of the talks, saying that Indonesia may halt future peace talks with GAM (The Jakarta Post, May 11) if GAM insists on separation from the Republic. It is very difficult to understand the patience of my government, which despite several rounds of talks in the past without any results that benefit the people of Aceh, still wants to talk instead of taking tough measures.

SOEGIH ARTO

Jakarta