BY MAX LANE
JAKARTA — More than 500 people, Acehnese and Indonesians, attended a series of lively debates and cultural events at conference organised by the Acehnese People's Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA) and the Popular Youth Movement (GPK), a youth organisation in political solidarity with the People's Democratic Party (PRD), held May 18-20.
The forum was the second recent solidarity event with the self-determination movement in Aceh, following on the protest by SEGERA (Solidarity Movement for the People of Aceh) in April.
The activities were opened with a cultural evening which combined traditional Acehnese performance with Acehnese struggle songs and monologues and Indonesian struggle songs. Some banned Acehnese songs were sung by a buskers band, led by Acehnese and largely comprising Jakarta street musicians aged between eight and 43 years. The cultural group, JAKER, and well-known playwright and democratic rights activist, Ratna Sarumpaet, also performed.
At the following day's forum, all groups expressed solidarity with the struggle of the Acehnese people. However, there was a lively, but friendly debate, about whether independence was the best solution. The representatives of the FPDRA argued strongly for independence, with the GPK and the National Peasants Union supporting their arguments. Other groups put forward various arguments for autonomy, arguing that if the democratic movement wins in Indonesia and the military is withdrawn from Aceh, then the real cause of the Acehnese people's suffering will disappear.
A similar debate occurred on the third day, originally intended to be a discussion among political parties. In the end, only the PRD turned up. Golkar and all the other invited political parties never replied to repeated invitations. The speakers at this session were PRD chairperson Budiman Sujatmiko and FPDRA chairperson Kautsar. A message of support from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was read out to the meeting.
Kautsar explained why the Acehnese people now wanted their independence, saying that the "social contract" which was a part of the Acehnese participation in the Republic of Indonesia had now been broken too often. Promises made in the 1950s to give Aceh the status of an autonomous province in the 1950s had been betrayed after Suharto had come to power in 1966.
During the Suharto period, said Kautsar, Aceh was oppressed by a system of exploitation and repression that had come to define Indonesia itself. In these circumstances, legitimate national aspirations had developed among the Acehnese people.
Sujatmiko emphasised the PRD's call for the withdrawal of the Indonesian military from Aceh. He also stated the PRD's support for the Acehnese people's call for a referendum and their right to choose independence. He ended his speech by reminding Indonesians that they had not done enough to struggle with the Acehnese in their effort to get the Indonesian military out of Aceh. He called on Indonesians to do more in this regard.
"The concrete support and solidarity that we can offer includes: condemning the military violence in Aceh; demanding the abolition of the political role of the military; the unconditional release of all political prisoners; the investigation and prosecution of all military involved in the massacres in Aceh; and support for a referendum or democratic dialogue", Sujatmiko said. "All social forces must respond pro-actively, in a just manner and without violence to the Acehnese people's call for a referendum."