Aceh draft law set for Indonesian parliament test

A draft law aimed at cementing a peace deal between Indonesia and Aceh province will be debated for the first time in parliament this week, with legislators facing a tight deadline to pass it.

Under the August 15 pact, Indonesia must approve laws by March 31 that give Aceh control of most of its affairs and activists of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) the chance to form a local political party to compete in direct elections.

Creating the law is the next biggest step after GAM disarmed in December and Indonesia pulled tens of thousands of troop and police reinforcements from Aceh.

But analysts say political challenges lie ahead for the draft, which could strain a landmark peace deal that ended three decades of war which killed 15,000 people.

The draft has gone through numerous deliberations in Aceh and Jakarta. The version submitted to parliament and obtained by Reuters, has watered down some of GAM's proposals, including one that would have allowing Aceh to join the United Nations.

If passed -- and nationalist opposition to the peace deal was high in parliament -- the draft document will hand Aceh more powers than any province in Indonesia.

According to the peace deal, Aceh's first direct elections should take place in April 2006, to elect a governor.

The draft stipulates local political parties can be set up as long as they have branches in half of Aceh's districts and towns. But the draft says setting up these parties needs time, with further regulations to be drawn up before February 2007.

This is in line with the Finnish-mediated peace deal that says the Indonesian government has 18 months from the signing to create an environment for local parties to function.

Analysts say the government does not want GAM members running for office before that time, which means only existing parties can put forward candidates for the governor's job.

"The government clearly does not want GAM to lead the region. They want to see a local rival to GAM (have time to form) first," said analyst Indra Jaya Piliang from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

No Aceh-based group is as ready as GAM to run for Aceh's top office, which will only be up for grabs again in 2011.

CONTENTIOUS ISSUE

Allowing local parties is sensitive because it contravenes an existing law requiring all political parties to have branches in more than half of Indonesia's 33 provinces.

Analysts say while the government supports local parties for Aceh -- which would include ones that would challenge GAM -- it wants to avoid a fight in parliament that could jeopardize efforts to pass the bill by March 31.

GAM in turn has said the draft ignored one of its key proposals -- letting independent candidates run in April -- which would have allowed former GAM members to run for governor.

"Why should they block this proposal? There are many in Aceh who do not want to funnel their aspirations through the existing political parties," said Teungku Kamaruzzaman, a former GAM negotiator who was freed from prison after the peace deal.

He argued that an article in the truce saying "the people of Aceh will have the right to nominate candidates" for all elected offices meant independent candidates must be allowed.

GAM is not alone as Acehnese students, academics and pressure groups want fresh faces to be able to run as independents in the devout Muslim province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

However, some political parties in Indonesia's fractious parliament that will debate the draft are the same ones which have blocked public demands to let independent candidates run in any Indonesian election.

"These parties are afraid of losing their grip in the regions if independent candidates are allowed. In Aceh, GAM or independent candidates mean suicide for existing parties," said analyst Muhammad Qodari of the Indonesian Survey Institute.

GAM and Indonesia's government signed the peace deal after months of negotiations spurred by the December 2004 tsunami that smashed into Indian Ocean coastlines.

That disaster left around 170,000 Acehnese dead or missing.

Source: ABC News