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11/12/2003
After sixth month of
military operation in the country’s most western region,
the Indonesian government extended to other sixth month
of martial law in Aceh. This shows us again that there
is little concern and willingness from the central
government to reconstruct the province through a
peaceful way. The prolonged military operation in Aceh
would burn the province into another long devastating
war zone that it has never been for the last three
decades.
The military operation
that has been inaugurated by the government last May by
retreating from the five months peace truce has not
brought many significant progresses. Instead, it has
created a new hostile social sentiment towards the
central government. However, the Indonesian government
had succeeded in limiting the flow of information from
the province by denying access to Aceh to almost all
diplomats, independent international observers, and
international human rights organizations.
Through a series of
legislative, bureaucratic, and security measures, the
government restricted access to the U.N. and other
non-governmental humanitarian agencies and the foreign
media. It’s also placed tight restrictions on the local
press to promote Indonesian nationalism and national
integrity instead of many human right abuses that
happened during the six month of military intervention.
Local human rights organizations are facing unacceptable
security threats. Many have been targeted by the martial
law administration in Aceh for being separatist
supporters.
And yet, political elites
in Jakarta are still not aware that the main cause of
the social and political disintegration of the nation in
the democratic period is ‘bad governance’. Jakarta has
failed to promote an efficient, responsive, and
accountable government. People that no longer trust the
government induced themselves into massive self-reliant
group, which is a fertile ground to promote separatism
and would kill the Indonesian national spirit.
The presence of democracy
also provokes the movement of separatist nationalism.
Since the democratic reformation began in Indonesia the
central government has been challenged by many sporadic
and regular separatist groups. In contrast, the
totalitarian regime that ruled Indonesia in the past
impedes with reprisal method the strong desire to have
an autonomous determination of a particular group of
people.
Therefore it is important
for the central government to disassociate themselves
from the previous regime by not applying the same
remedies and action taken by the previous government
such as launching another military operation in Aceh.
The central government should promote a strong sentiment
and perception of the importance of democracy that could
unify separatist and nationalist by a greater cause into
peaceful resolution. Exhausting negotiation remedy is
the crucial factor for the new democratic Indonesian
government to distinguish them from the previous regime.
Negotiating is not loosing or jeopardizing the
Indonesian integrity. It rather preserves and introduces
to the Indonesian people that a new period has been
inaugurated in the Indonesian history, and it is
important to show the good intention and willingness
from the central government to its people by promoting a
dualist nationalist idea. A man can be equally proud to
be belonged within a particular group of nationalities,
but still accept its integration within one greater
State, where the State only controls the foreign policy,
currency, and external defense.
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