ACEH: Post Conflict
By Beni Bevly
Since Home Affairs Minister Moh Ma`ruf installed Irwandi Yusuf and Muhammad Nazer as Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) governor and deputy governor at the Aceh provincial legislative building in Banda Aceh (Antara News, 02/08/07), all the issues are related to Aceh as if sunk in to the beneath of the ocean. It seems all the difficult tasks are done. Now everyone could go home and rest. Is that right? Dr. Edward Aspinall, Research Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change at Australian National University briefly discussed the politics prospect of Aceh on April 4, 2007 at the Stanford University, California, USA.
In the seminar “From Conflict to Compromise in War-torn Aceh, Indonesia” that I attended was featuring Dr. Aspinall and hosted by Donald Emerson (Director, Southeast Asia Forum, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University). Dr. Aspinall who has research interests in Indonesian politics, especially the politics of democratization, civil society, social movements, labor and students as well as secessionist movements such as Aceh and the comparative politics of democratization in East Asia had successfully compiled a lot of politics information from former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) activists.
The peace talks in Helsinki between GAM activists and Jakarta officials produced the Memorandum of Understanding in August 2005. At the end of this process lead to an election in December 2006. The vote tallies from the province`s 21 districts and municipalities showed that Irwandi Yusuf and Muhammad Nazer who ran as an independent candidate for governor position won 768,745 votes, leaving behind his strongest rival Ahmad Humam Hamid in second place with 334,484 votes (16.62 percent) (Antara News, 02/08/07).
The victorious gubernatorial candidate, Irwandi Yusuf, was a guerrilla fighter in GAM. Captured by the Indonesian army, he escaped from his prison when it was wrecked during the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami. He later joined the peace talks in Helsinki that produced the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Irwandi Yusuf’s vice-governor is Muhammad Nazar, a skilled political organizer. After the downfall of the Suharto regime, Nazar emerged as leader of the umbrella group of Acehnese organizations campaigning for a referendum to decide Aceh’s future. One rally achieved a turnout of over a million people in Bandar Aceh, the region’s capital. Nazar was imprisoned for his activities, but was released along with most other Acehnese political prisoners and GAM fighters following the signing of the August 2005 (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 2007).
The discussion in this seminar also mentioned about syariah or Islamic law that has been implemented in Aceh. This law so far only affected the poor, small gamblers and women. The elites in Aceh were not affected by this law. One of the law was shown on the street poster regarding dress guidelines. Women should wear “jilbab” or veil that cover the whole body and men should wear long sleeves with the black hat. Mini skirts that are identified as metropolitan culture, modernization or westernization are prohibited.
At the lower level of government (“kabupaten” or district) are also mainly occupied by former GAM members. Interestingly, according to Dr. Aspinall findings, most of them were not satisfied with Helsinki MOU. They said they had made mistake by signing the MOU. But when come to the conversation about “proyek” (projects), they became relax. Projects mean money from Jakarta.
Other issue that was also brought up by Dr. Apinall that many of former GAM members had their new houses, cars and other assets, while there were also a lot of formers GAM commanders did not as lucky as their colleagues. This issue is sensitive and could escalate if it is not solved within them properly.
Will this be the main issue in Aceh post conflict?
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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.
