Arie Maulana: Politisi PA Gagal Jadikan Bendera Kepentingan Bersama

Banda Aceh – Polemik bendera bulan bintang yang masih menunggu pertemuan antara Gubernur Zaini Abdullah dengan Presiden SBY menjadi perhatian aktifis 1998. Menurut Arie Maulana, mantan aktifis SMUR (Solidaritas Mahasiswa untuk Rakyat) polemik bendera ini disebabkan karena kesalahan komunikasi politik Partai Aceh (PA).

“Pola komunikasi politisi PA, memberi kesan bahwa mereka telah menggunakan isu bendera ini hanya untuk meningkatkan elektabilitas personalnya pada 2014. Sehingga ini menjadi sumber kecurigaan utama berbagai elemen masyarakat di Aceh. Penafian aspirasi masyarakat Gayo dan Barat Selatan tidak bisa begitu saja dilakukan politisi PA. Ini sangat kita sayangkan. Akibatnya PA berjalan sendirian, ” kata Arie kepada The Globe Journal, Minggu (7/4/2013) malam.
Continue reading

Catatan Politik Aceh 2012: Antara Fragmentasi dan Jebakan Korupsi

Tahun 2012 menjadi tahun yang sangat penting bagi keberlanjutan pemerintahan dan masa depan Aceh. Pada tahun inilah, pemilihan kepala daerah (pilkada) kedua sejak masa damai digelar. Pemerintahan baru pun dihasilkan. Terpilihnya pemerintahan baru hanyalah titik awal. Setumpuk persoalan politik menunggu sentuhan pemerintahan ini.

Pilkada Aceh 2012 ditandai dengan kemenangan pasangan yang diusung Partai Aceh, Zaini Abdullah-Muzakir Manaf , sebagai nahkoda Aceh yang baru untuk periode 2012-2017. Pasangan tersebut meraih suara 1.327.695 atau 55,78 persen dari total suara sah 2.457.196. C alon gubernur petahana yang maju dari jalur perseorangan, Irwandi Yusuf, yang berpasangan dengan Muhyan Yunan, hanya menempati posisi kedua dengan perolehan suara 694.515 atau 29,8 persen.

Continue reading

With Aceh Party Win, Chance for New Era

Banda Aceh. After its resounding victory in Aceh’s gubernatorial election, the real work is just beginning for the Aceh Party.

As Jakarta and the international community cautiously welcome the election of former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels Zaini Abdullah and Muzakir Manaf as governor and deputy governor, Acehnese long for the stability and prosperity once promised by the secessionist group.

Observers say the former rebels have a make-or-break opportunity to cement their credibility as leaders. Unlike when the outgoing governor, Irwandi Yusuf, also a former GAM member, was elected in 2007, the Aceh Party now holds a sweeping majority in the executive and legislative bodies in cities and districts across the province.

Though he served as the form er GAM propaganda chief, Irwandi was not seen as a true representative of the former rebels because he was not endorsed by the Aceh Party’s old guard. He ran as an independent this year.

Zaini, the foreign and health minister for the Aceh government-in-exile in Sweden during the decades-long struggle with Jakarta, and Muzakir, a former GAM military commander, received the unanimous support of the party elites.

Zaini was the chief negotiator for GAM when it signed the 2005 Helsinki peace accord with Jakarta that ended three decades of bloody conflict.

“It’s about both the past and future,” rights activist Hendardi, chairman of the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

“They have struggled for years in the past to rule the province. And now that they have finally gotten it democratically, it’s a chance that they better use.”

Otherwise, he said, the former rebels will lose credibility — not only at the local level but also nationally and internationally.

“The yardstick will be their ability to reduce conflict, push economic development and tackle corruption,” he said.

While local experts are upbeat about the future of the Aceh Party’s rule, they have underlined the importance of prioritizing public welfare over initiatives like implementing a more stringent version of Shariah law — a central platform of the governor-elect’s campaign that Hendardi said was only lip service to attract voters.

“At the end of the day, people will judge [Zaini] by how much he raises the province’s living standards,” he said.

Nazamuddin Basyah Said, an economist at Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, urged Zaini to put money into fixing Aceh’s irrigation system, highways and seaports.

“Please drop the rhetoric and start taking concrete action,” he said. “Building infrastructure can create jobs and reduce the province’s current 19 percent poverty rate.”

He predicted that with all the former rebels united in support of Zaini and Muzakir, Aceh would benefit from stability. “I believe that there will be a huge difference,” he said. “More investors will come to a secure Aceh.”

Shootings and firebombings took place intermittently across the province during Irwandi’s tenure, spiking during the run-up to the election, and reports of intimidation against voters dogged the polls.

Hendardi said Jakarta had no choice but to accept that former GAM members were now totally in charge in Aceh.

Others weren’t so quick to concede the point. Irwandi’s team announced it was filing a legal motion accusing the Aceh Party of intimidating voters, and asking that the election results be disallowed.

“We found criminal actions, intimidation and fraud during the election. We can’t accept the results,” Ligadinsyah, a member of Irwandi’s campaign team, said in Banda Aceh on Thursday.

Though he predicted the Constitutional Court would throw out the motion, an analyst at an Aceh-based think tank said reports of election-day intimidation and violence must be investigated.

“Zaini and Muzakir are the legitimate governor and deputy governor of Aceh,” said Teuku Ardiansyah, an analyst at the Katahati Institute. “However, we can’t allow a culture of violence to prevail and become the standard practice for winning elections.”

A spokesman for Irwandi said he would form a new party to monitor Zaini’s administration.

Ardiansyah, however, predicted that sooner or later Irwandi and his supporters would make peace with Zaini and the Aceh Party — who, after all, are his former comrades in arms.

“There will a reconciliation between them because they’ve been together in GAM,” he said. “That will take place this year.”

Zaini has indicated that he would be open to making amends with Irwandi.

“We realize that in building Aceh, we need all stakeholders to come aboard,” he said in Banda Aceh on Wednesday.

Source : thejakartaglobe.com

How Will Partai Aceh Govern?

The extraordinary victory of Partai Aceh (Aceh Party) raises questions about how Aceh will develop in the next five years. Will it grow into an authoritarian one-party enclave in the middle of democratic Indonesia or become a model for the transformation of a guerrilla movement into a responsible political force?

It is worth looking at why Partai Aceh won by such huge margins: close to 55 per cent overall and more than 70 per cent in the populous districts along the east coast. Intimidation, while significant, cannot explain these numbers.

Acehnese told us repeatedly last week that the election was about peace and security – avoiding any return to conflict and ensuring a sense of personal safety. Partai Aceh leaders successfully portrayed themselves as both the leaders of the guerrilla struggle and the architects of the 2005 peace. They also suggested vaguely, however, that if they weren’t elected, there could be trouble.

Some gave other reasons for choosing the party. Several young intellectuals argued that GAM’s transition from guerrilla group to party was incomplete, and it needed more time to finish the process. If the former rebels lost this time, they might opt out of the political process in a way that would have long-term negative implications for Aceh.

The most important factor in the vote, however, was almost certainly the party’s ability to mobilise the populace through the Komite Peralihan Aceh or KPA, the post-conflict name for the old guerrilla structure — and here is where some of the problems lie. The KPA is led down to the village level by former commanders, and in many areas it is indistinguishable from the party.

The KPA has no legal status, but its senior members are often powerful local warlords, grown rich through securing construction contracts and other concessions. As former combatants, they are used to obeying orders from above and securing obedience from below. When a political party is superimposed on this structure, the result has been an often autocratic organisation with little tolerance for dissent.

In Langsa, we were sitting with a group of NGO leaders discussing the election, when suddenly one lowered his voice and whispered, “Careful, it’s not sterile here.” In the Soeharto days, that used to be the reaction when a suspected military or intelligence agent appeared. This time, it was a local Partai Aceh man who had entered, and our friends were afraid of being overheard; the party is widely believed to have its own network of informers. Several local offices of the election oversight body, Panwas, said it was difficult to follow up reports of Partai Aceh violations because witnesses were afraid to come forward.

If the party is to lead Aceh in a positive direction it needs to disassociate itself from and/or dissolve the KPA, gradually rid itself of military attributes (the party’s paramilitary task force or satgas wears red berets and camouflage uniforms) and recruit new blood on college campuses. A younger, better educated faction of the party says it is trying to open the party up and make it less exclusive, but it won’t happen overnight.

This raises the question of what Partai Aceh’s political agenda will be going forward, now that it controls both the executive and legislative branches of the provincial government. While the campaign was devoid of specifics, the party has a detailed platform for preserving the peace, improving government, reducing poverty, and strengthening Achenese culture and values. If the party uses it as a guideline for policies, it could win over some sceptics, although the track record of the party’s legislators is poor.

One party worker said the top legislative priority was the draft regulation on the Wali Nanggroe, an institution agreed on in Helsinki as a ceremonial position for the late Hasan di Tiro. Malek Mahmud, GAM’s former “prime minister” and Partai Aceh’s founder, has since assumed the title and role that some in the party’s old guard see as a kind of constitutional monarch. How the final version of this regulation emerges will send important signals about the party’s willingness to let go of some of its feudal tendencies.

Aceh’s development will also depend on Jakarta and the willingness of national institutions to confront the party if it challenges the constitution or acts outside the law. Local police have shown a distinct reluctance to move against the KPA. When several members were implicated in the killings of Javanese workers in December and January, it took the elite Detachment 88 from Jakarta to make the arrests, and many Acehnese doubt that there is much interest in probing the case further.

Likewise when the party last year refused to accept a Constitutional Court ruling, Home Affairs seemed to take its side, on the grounds that the largest party in Aceh had to be “accommodated” – and it was. The lesson may be that defiance of national institutions carries no costs, particularly as 2014 draws closer.

Many Acehnese we met assume that if its elected officials don’t deliver, they will be thrown out in five years. But with an absence of checks and balances, combined with an ability to direct significant resources to members, the party may be difficult to dislodge.

Whatever happens, Aceh’s experiment in post-conflict governance will be closely watched.

Sidney Jones is senior adviser to the Asia Program of International Crisis Group.

Source : crisisgroup.org

Abu Razak: Hampir di Semua Daerah Zaini-Muzakir Menang

BANDA ACEH – Ketua Umum Pemenangan Pusat Partai Aceh, Kamaruddin Abu Bakar, atau yang dikenal Abu Razak mengatakan bahwa hampir di semua daerah pemilihan di Aceh, pasangan Zaini Abdullah Muzakir Manaf memperoleh kemenangan dalam perolehan suara.

“Dari perhitungan cepat beberapa lembaga nasional dan hasil sementara real quick count Partai Aceh menunjukkan kemenangan pasangan Zaini-Muzakir hampir di semua wilayah Aceh,” kata Abu Razak dalam saat konferensi di Kantor Pusat Pemenangan Partai Aceh, Lamdingin, Banda Aceh, Senin malam, 9 April 2012.

Disebutkan, beberapa daerah yang peroleh suaranya dimenangkan oleh Partai Aceh antara lain Aceh Utara, Pidie, Aceh Timur, dan Aceh Jaya.

Hingga saat dilaksanakannya konferensi pers, Partai Aceh telah menginput 1.339.093 suara sah dari 5581 TPS, atau sebanyak 57,04 persen dari total jumlah suara Pilkada Aceh 2012. Dari jumlah itu, pasangan Zaini-Muzakir menempati urutan pertama, sebanyak 746.175 suara atau 55,72 persen dari total suara yang masuk ke Partai Aceh.

Sedangan urutan kedua untuk pasangan Irwandi-Muhyan, 387.704 suara, atau 28,95 persen dari total suara sementara yang masuk ke Partai Aceh.  Selanjutnya pasangan Nazar-Nova, 110.375 atau 8, 24 persen, pasangan Darni Daud-Ahmad Fauzi 53,405  atau 3,99 persen, Abi Lampisang-Ahmad Tajudin 41.434 atau 3,09 persen.

Karena itu, kata Abu Razak, pihaknya menginstruksikan kepada seluruh pihak yang terlibat dalam pemenangan Partai Aceh untuk mengawal suara pada semua tingkatan yang sudah ditentukan oleh KIP.[]

Source : The Atjehpost

Tim Pemenangan Partai Aceh Rilis Kecurangan Pilkada 2012

BANDA ACEH – Tim Pemenangan Pusat Partai Aceh menyebutkan telah menemukan beberapa pelanggaran di lapangan dalam proses pemilihan gubernur-wakil gubernur dan bupati/wakil bupati yang sedang berlangsung hari ini, Senin, 9 April 2012.

Berdasarkan siaran pers yang ditandatangani Yuli Zuardi Rais, Ketua Bidang Propaganda Pemenangan Pusat Partai Aceh disebutkan, pihaknya menemukan sejumlah pelanggaran yang berpotensi merusak proses pemilihan yang sedang berlangsung.

Berikut adalah isi siaran pers dari Tim Pemenangan Pusat Partai Aceh.

Daftar Pelanggaran/Kecurangan Pilkada Aceh 2012 Data Base Partai Aceh

Pukul 11.53 Wib
[Aceh Selatan] Tepatnya di kecamatan Samadua di Desa gunung Ketek kedapatan dua surat suara telah tercoblos pada kandidat (Calon Gubernur No. 2) dan di Ujung Gunong, Samadua Timses pasangan Irwandi-Muhyan dengan memakai baju Tim Ses kedapatan membagi-bagi nasi
bungkus kepada masyarakat pemilih. Kasus ini telah dilaporkan ke panwas setempat.

Pukul 11.53 Wib
[Aceh Barat Daya] di Kecamatan Blangpidie Desa Mata Ie. Pihak KPPS di TPS 1 – TPS4 melakukan pelanggaran dengan meminta tanda tangan saksi diberita acara perhitungan suara sebelum pemilihan usai.

Pukul 11.54 Wib
[Aceh Barat Daya] di Kecamatan Babahrot Abdya, Desa Blang dalam TPS1, terdapat 1 kertas surat suara sudah tercoblos untuk (Calon Gubernur No.1) dan (Calon Bupati No.1).

Pukul 11.54 Wib
[Aceh Barat Daya] di Kecamatan Kuala Batee, Kp. Tengah, TPS 1 ada kertas suara rusak yang sudah tercoblos diluar kotak kandidat untuk gubernur, kontak KPPS : Mirza Elia.

Pukul 11.59 Wib
[Aceh Besar] Para Napi lapas Kec. Darul Imarah (belakang Serambi Indonesia) masih belum mendapat surat undangan untuk memilih.

Pukul 12.27 Wib
[Gayo Lues] di Kecamatan Dabun Gelang, Desa Kendawi TPS 1. Kurang surat suara untuk pemilian Calon Gubernur dan Wakil Gubernur sebanyak 105 dan TPS 1 kota Blang Kejeren
kekurangan 100 lembar surat suara.

Tim Pemenangan Pusat Partai Aceh (PA) akan melakukan update per Jam untuk perkembangan lapangan Pilkada Aceh 2012.

BANDA ACEH, 9 April 2012
TIM PEMENANGAN PUSAT Dr. H. ZAINI ABDULLAH-MUZAKIR MANAF UNTUK PEMERINTAH ACEH 2012-1017

KETUA BIDANG PROPAGANDA PEMENANGAN PUSAT PARTAI ACEH

YULI ZUARDI RAIS

Source : The Atjehpost

Mualem: Jika Terpilih, Kita Akan Benahi Ulee Ureung

PANTON LABU – “Saya optimis Partai Aceh akan menang dan target perolehan suara 75 persen seluruh Aceh.” Hal itu disampaikan Muzakir Manaf atau Mualem kepada wartawan, usai melakukan pencoblosan di TPS 29 Kota Panton Labu, Kecamatan Tanah Jambo Aye, Aceh Utara, Senin 9 April 2012.

Saat ditanya, apa yang ia lakukan jika Partai Aceh tidak menang? “Jika memang nantinya saya (Partai Aceh) tidak terpilih, ya tidak mengapa, mau bagaimana lagi?,” jawabnya sambil tersenyum.

Mualem menambahkan, jika terpilih, semua butir-butir MoU akan dirampungkan, termasuk yang belum dijalankan oleh pemimpin pemerintahan Aceh sebelumnya. “JKA akan kita jalankan, mungkin namanya saja yang berbeda. Untuk dokter, kita akan seleksi ketat yang memiliki kemampuan terbaik,” ujarnya.

“Kita juga akan membenahi semua program mulai dari A hingga Z. Namun yang pertama, kita akan perbaiki “Ulee Ureung” (Sumber Daya Manusia) itu sendiri,” kata Mualem.[]

Source : The Atjehpost

Masyarakat Pilih Partai Aceh Karena Ingin Perubahan

Aceh Utara – Pada Pemilukada Aceh ini, Senin (09/4), masyarakat Aceh tampak lebih memilih cagub/cawagub dari Partai Aceh (PA) Zaini – Muzakir dan Cabup dan Cawabup, Muhammad Thaib-M.Jamil, M.Kes, ketimbang partai lain. Hal itu berdasarkan pantauan The Globe Journal di sejumlah lokasi TPS saat berlangsungnya perhitungan suara di sejumlah desa dan kecamatan di Aceh Utara.

Seperti yang dikatakan oleh sejumlah warga, salah satunya Andri. Ia mengaku memilih PA dengan alasan ingin menikmati perubahan kabupaten dan propinsi ketika dipimpin oleh kepal yang baru.

“Saya memilih PA, karena ingin merasakan perubahan Aceh, baik kota maupun kabupaten. Lagi pula mereka menjanjikan akan mengesahkan qanun untuk dayah,”ujar Andri kepada The Globe Journal di Lhoksukon.

Terkait hal tersebut, Juru Bicara Partai Aceh, Fakhrul Razi kepada The Globe Journal via telephone, mengatakan, hal sedemikian merupakan doa dari rakyat Aceh dengan memilih Partai Aceh sesuai hati nurani.

“Semua karena doa rakyat Aceh, dan kemenangan ini adalah kemenangan rakyat Aceh nantinya,”ujarnya sembari mengharapkan bahwa suara PA jangan ada yang hilang serta terjadinya kecurangan oleh lawan.

Saat disinggung mengenai teror meneror maupun aksi kejahatan yang terjadi saat kampanye dan sebelum kampanye, pihaknya telah melaporkan hal tersebut kepada pihak kepolisian setempat. “Ya.. PA juga mengalami beberapa intimidasi dan kekerasan, kami akan melaporkan setelah Pemilukada ini nantinya. Yang penting pilkada berjalan sukses dan demokratis,”jelasnya sambil menutupi pembicaraan.

Source : The Globe Journal

Kemenangan Zaini-Muzakir Kemenangan Rakyat

INDAHNYA hari ini 9 April 2012, damai rasanya jiwa melihat kondisi aceh yang begini kondusif, aman dan damai di hari penentuan para pemimpin Aceh lima tahun ke depan.

BBM dan media social seperti Facebook dan Twiterpun terasa sepi, jauh dari hujatan dan caci maki seperti hari-hari sebelumnya.

Aroma konflik di hari-hari kemarin seketika raib diterpa angin demokrasi. Betapa indahnya hidup jika kondisi seperti ini dapat dipertahankan. Tapi mungkinkah?

Mungkinkah dalam kondisi yang sarat dengan kepentingan ini, caci maki, hujat menghujat bisa berhenti? Sepertinya jauh panggang dari pada api, apalagi jika ada kecurangan dalam hal penghitungan suara yang akan dikeluarkan oleh KIP nantinya.

Bukankah dalam dunia politik tipu menipu, sikut menyikut sudah menjadi kewajaran? Bisa saja pada pukul 16 WIB tanggal 9 April 2012 LSI menyatakan ZIKIR memperoleh angka 55,9% dan Irwandi 28,66%, esok lusa KIP akan membalikkan angka tersebut, di mana ZIKIR 28,66% dan Irwandi menjadi 55,99%. Karna hasil akhir tetap berada ditangan KIP.

Berdarah tidaknya Aceh setlah hari pencoblosan ada ditangan KIP. Semoga saja KIP tetap bersikap jujur dan adil sesuai dengan pilhan rakyat, tidak memanipulasai dan tidak terbuai dengan lembaran rupiah dari pihak manapun.

Berdasarkan hasil Quick Caunt yang dilakukan oleh LSI di hermes palace tanggal 9 April 2012, (TV One) , Zaini-Muzakir unggul dari kandidat lainnya.

Kemenangan Zaini-Muzakir mutlak kemenangan rakyat, kemenangan yang tidak lepas dari kerja-kerja pengorganisasian yang telah dibangun sejak 30 tahun silam.

Menjadi sia-sia segudang baliho atau spanduk jika basis rakyat tidak dikuasai. Diakui atau tidak sampai detik ini kekuatan terbesar GAM yang saat ini telah menjadi KPA masih begitu massif di Aceh dan belum ada satu kekuatanpun yang mampu menjadi pesaing.

Bukankah kekuatan yang mampu menghancurkan penjajahan atau memenangkan sebuah rezim hanya kekuatan rakyat? saya yakin semua tim sukses mengetahui akan hal ini karna ramai dari mereka adalah anak muda yang memulai karir dari organisasi kiri yang sangat faham dengan kata-kata kekuatan rakyat.

Namun yang naifnya, kenapa mereka lupa? Kenapa disaat-saat seperti ini buku-buku revolusioner yang telah mereka lahap dicampakkan begitu saja? Kenapa mereka hanya fokus pada kerja-kerja black propaganda semata? Hanya bisa menuduh dan menuding?

Dua kali sudah Aceh memilih eksekutif, dua kali pula sosok yang disokong oleh PA tampil sebagi pemenang, kemenangan ini adalah bukti nyata bahwa kekuatan rakyat sangat menentukan. struktur PA yang aktif sampai kepelosok desa menjadi jalan mulus bagi PA untuk meraih kursi kepemimpinan.

Kemenangan Irwandi-Nazar tahun 2006 silam juga tidak lepas dari pengukuhan dan restu yang diberikan oleh Muzakir Manaf selaku ketua PA atas pencalonan mereka.

Ideology keacehan yang sudah ditanam jauh-jauh hari oleh Hasan Tiro telah menjadi pengikat tersendiri antara masyarakat dengan eks kombatan (KPA/PA). sehingga kemenangan zaini-muzakir bukanlah suatu keanehan dan bukan pula hal yang mengejutkan.

Kekuatan PA ada di sendi dan tulang-tulang rakyat aceh. Kekuatan yang telah di bangun sejak 37 tahun silam.

Diakui atau tidak membangun kekuatan rakyat dan kepercayaan rakyat bukan hal yang mudah, tidak cukup dengan lima tahun berkuasa untuk mengambil hati rakyat, tidak cukup dengan milyaran rupiah, tidak cukup dengan kegeniusan semata, tidak pula hanya dengan pencitraan setahun dua tahun, tidak juga hanya dengan JKA, dengan dana untuk anak yatim, dengan memberi daging megang gratis, dengan pendidikan gratis rakyat aceh bisa tunduk dan mangut di telapak kaki kita.

Tidak seperti itu, rakyat aceh rakyat yang cerdas, rupiah digenggam suara hati belum tentu dapat digapai. Mereka telah diajarkan oleh konflik yang mendera aceh tercinta ini selama puluahn tahun. Konflik telah menjadikan mereka sebagai pelakon politik yang unggul.

Butuh waktu puluhan tahun, butuh darah, butuh nyawa, butuh kegeniusan yang dibarengi dengan ketaqwaan, akhlak, aqidah serta siap mati tanpa meninggalkan harta warisan untuk anak cucu serta sanak saudara seperti sosok wali naggroe Hasan Tiro untuk tunduk dan patuh diatas ideology yang kita kehendaki.

Jika tidak mampu menjadi Tgk Hasan Tiro, jangan coba-coba membuat perlawanan atas kekuatan rakyat yang telah terlebih dahulu dibangun oleh Almarhum. Menjaga dan merawat saja apa yang telah ditinggalkan oleh Tgk Hasan Tiro begitu menyulitkan apalagi ingin melawan dan menghancurkan?

Bagi PA Mengajak masyarakat untuk memilih calonnya bukan hal yang sulit, hanya dua bulan waktu yang dimiliki PA untuk meyakinkan rakyat kalau PA ikut terlibat dalam pesta demokrasi ini, Alhamdulillah dalam jangka waktu dua bulan itu kemenangan bisa diraih, apalagi jika PA memiliki waktu yang panjang seperti kandidiat lainnya, kemungkinan persentase kemenangan akan lebih tinggi

Cukup dengan kata-kata “kali nyo sige tek tapileh droe teh”! kata-kata sederhana tetapi mampu memberi pemahaman yang sangat dalam dibenak masyarakat.

Selain dari yang No 5 semuanya bukan” Droe teh”. Kata-kata droe teh memiliki makna kepemilikan bersama, kandidat itu milik kita, saudara kita, keluarga kita. Pengakuan inilah yang sulit diperoleh oleh kandidat selain kandidat PA.

Tidak banyak yang diharapkan rakyat atas kepemimpinan PA, hanya kepuasan batin yaa… hanya kepuasan batin, seperti pengakuan bang Midi sipenjual buah keliling yang sempat saya tanya apa alasannya memilih No 5. Bang midi sangat sadar kalaupun PA menang dia tetap menjadi bang midi sipenjual buah, pekerjaannya tetap sipenjual buah keliling, tetapi kepuasana batin itulah yang sulit dibeli dari bang midi sipenjual buah keliling.

Saya sendiripun tidak jauh berbeda dengan bang Midi, ada kepuasan batin, pengabdian saya untuk Partai Aceh selam 10 tahun ini tidak lebih karna rasa memiliki saya atas Partai yang saya kenal dengan ideology keacehannya, terlepas PA diklaim sebagai partai ureung bangai atau partai pemeberontak, bagi saya Kemenangan Partai Aceh adalah Kemerdekaan bagi saya sendiri.

Hanya dengan kemerdekaan batin saya bisa meraih kedamaian yang hakiki. Kedamaain yang dikehendaki oleh siapa saja, termasuk juga anda.

Semoga saja dengan kemenangan ZIKIR (Zaini Muzakir) kedamaian itu benar-benar menjadi milik kita semua. Tidak ada gunanya lagi PA dicaci, dimaki dihina dan dihujat, toh PA sudah tampil sebagai juara.

Hentikan kecurangan, manipulasi, kepalsuan, hapus rasa curiga, stop caci maki, mari kembali bergandengan tangan, lupakan hari-hari kemarin, saatnya kita bersatu dibawah naungan Zaini – Muzakir untuk membangun aceh yang lebih meumarwah. []

Source : Atjehpost.com

Ex-combatants in politics — Aceh’s post-conflict challenge

Wherever you look, whoever you turn to when talking to people in Aceh today, the feedback seems virtually universal: Aceh will turn red. In other words, the political movement founded by former rebel group GAM (the Free Aceh Movement), the Aceh Party (PA), is expected to win the governorship and a considerable number of top jobs at the district level in the April 9 elections. 

More significant will be the differences between the contesting parties. Even more important, perhaps, is, if they win, how did they achieve it? Will there be smooth or violent elections? Will it be a fair vote, or will there be threats and silent intimidation?

History has demonstrated that former armed fighters — ex-armed rebels, ex-guerillas, or ex-revolutionaries — tend to become a critical agency in post-conflict situations. 

Very recently, we have seen how Timor Leste has been able to turn a volatile situation into a stable one that led to successful presidential elections. Only a few years earlier, though, in 2006, the country almost became a failed state. 

Back then, the new military corps came into a serious conflict with the national police, resulting in many deaths. Both recruited from ex-guerillas who felt that they were discriminated against. 

Independent Indonesia also faced such challenges. The drive toward the formation of a professional military had provoked the resistance of politically motivated and idealistic armed revolutionary units. It ultimately led to the so-called Madiun Affair in 1948.

Now, Aceh, too, has to deal with its former armed fighters. Like Indonesia’s ex-revolutionaries in the late 1940s and Timor Leste’s former guerillas in the mid 2000s, the Acehnese ex-rebel combatants have to find new and secure positions in a post-conflict situation.

Soon after the Helsinki Peace pact in 2005, one faction of former rebels, known as the ex-Libyan-trained fighters of the late 1980s and the generation of 1998, had consolidated its power and influence away from the elder, exiled leaders of the 1970s who founded the AM, Aceh Merdeka, later renamed GAM. 

These young ex-combatants subsequently supported the Irwandi Yusuf–Mohammad Nazar candidacy, who won the gubernatorial election in 2006. The GAM’s sharp split has thus since become a persistent fact.

The older GAM generation, led by Malik Mahmud and Zaini Abdullah, succeeded in turning the tables thanks to the legitimacy bestowed upon them by the Wali Nanggroe (Aceh-state guardian) Hasan di Tiro. PA, which they founded in 2007, became a mass party. Its hegemonic influence was confirmed as they were able to bring home the Wali in 2008. 

For the first time in Indonesia’s history, it was possible for a supreme rebel leader to return home and it was massively and intensely welcomed by people. That in itself was an exemplary democratic achievement of post-Soeharto Indonesia. But it didn’t subsequently bring a better, stable and peaceful democracy to Aceh itself for three reasons. 

Firstly, the institutions and instruments to implement the Helsinki regulations are only partly able to accommodate the wishes and interests of the former combatants: the ex-Panglima Wilayah (regional commanders), the ex-Panglima Sagoe (district commanders) and their followers. 

Some have greatly benefited from Governor Irwandi’s rule and have become wealthy businessmen. Most, however, have benefited less and their followers not at all.

Secondly, the older PA leaders are now determined to gain power as this is their last chance to lead and rule the province. They do so by modernizing the party structure and organization, by resisting Governor Irwandi’s efforts to be re-elected, and — in general — by threats and intimidation. 

Thirdly, this has resulted in exhausting political-legal battle, often interspersed with violence, for months. 

The PA’s boycott of the elections gave rise to the prospect of greater instability. Jakarta’s intervention to avoid this by postponing the elections until April 9, in order to allow the PA to participate, may be well reasoned, but it also made the competition and anxiety even more intense.

For Governor Irwandi, who was poised to win if the elections were not postponed, now has to mobilize power and funds to compete with the PA. And the PA, in turn, has to play the game very carefully so that it should not arouse Jakarta’s suspicion of a secret agenda of independence if they not only rule the parliament but command the administration. 

The PA invited four Army generals to campaign for the party, including two former regional commanders, one of whom — Gen. Soenarko — had been particularly controversial due to allegations of harsh treatment of former rebels.

The postponement of the elections has shaped a dilemma for the ex-combatants: Either they stay put at Irwandi’s camp or change sides and support the PA. 

It’s a historic moment for them, one that would reveal their real motives as either opportunistic (for business reasons) or idealistic (wanting rural electorates). 

It’s important to note that the ex-combatants are rooted in the former GAM strongholds in rural areas. It explains why the statement of the older GAM leaders and its commander Muzakkir Manaf as being “neutral” in the 2006 elections resulted in a great victory for the Irwandi group, who used the GAM flag as a symbol. 

Now it’s the other way around: it’s the older leaders, with Zaini Abdullah and Muzakir Manaf as their candidates — brilliantly shortened to ‘Zikir”, meaning collective prayer to admire God almighty — that is taking the lead as they evoke GAM symbols and the late Wali Hasan Tiro’s legacy. 

Unfortunately, it’s hard to pinpoint the numbers and the strength — let alone the social-class bases — of the ex-combatant commanders who support Irwandi and the Zikir. But the latest survey suggests the latter would win with 46 percent (against 22 percent) which will not require a second round of voting. 

Whatever the outcome, it will reflect the general assessment of common Acehnese in villages, who know what contributions the ex-combatants made during the conflict, and will weigh it against their role in peace time as they decide at the private ballot boxes.

* Aboeprijadi Santoso,  The writer is a journalist.

Source : The Jakarta Post