It was a disturbingly familiar scene: Officials from the Indonesian government and separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in a frank exchange of accusations, barbs and insults as they debated war and peace in the strife-torn region.
But this time the debate wasn't through the media, some nondescript negotiating room in a European hotel or even via satellite phone from an unknown guerrilla base camp. Instead, it was Indonesian Information Minister Sofyan Jalil and MN Djuli, a senior GAM representative, sitting on the same side of a table during a panel discussion last week on Aceh's successful peace process and how to keep it moving.
That two long-time enemies would hold a joint discussion as part of events leading up to yesterday's one-year anniversary of an historic peace agreement was unthinkable just 18 months ago.
But another unthinkable event, the 2004 Asian tsunami, forever changed Aceh's destiny. As devastating and heart-wrenching as the tsunami was, there is no doubting that, with thousands of soldiers, police and guerrilla fighters and their families dead, the disaster by itself pushed the sides together to end a seemingly endless conflict.
"Both sides have had to made concessions and there are more concessions as they move forward," said Paul Dillon, a press officer for the International Organization on Migration (IOM), which is working to reintegrate former GAM political prisoners and fighters back into Acehnese society.
And many believe that the reintegration process, as well as the economic development of small villages to where the ex-guerrillas are returning home, will determine whether the Aug. 15 anniversary will still continue to be celebrated 10 years from now.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had made peace in Aceh a top national priority of his presidency, agreed to third-party facilitation by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari in January last year. And when GAM agreed to give up its demand for independence, the sides incredibly signed a deal in Helsinki, Finland, only seven months later.
The Indonesian parliament last month passed a special autonomy law for Aceh, clearing the way for elections in December.
But keeping the momentum going after yesterday's one-year celebrations in Aceh and the forthcoming elections will come down to whether ex-fighters and residents of strife-torn villages feel they are benefiting from the peace.
"What I feel has not moved vigorously forward is the role of reintegration," Pieter Feith, head of a EU-led peace monitoring mission in Aceh, said last week.
The Jakarta government has promised tens of millions of dollars for job creation, economic development, and rehabilitation for ex-combatants and war-ravaged areas of Aceh.
But the agency tasked with deciding how to spend the money was inundated with nearly 50,000 proposals from Acehnese citizens, all but freezing the release of cash while they figured out how to accommodate so many aspirations.
Now, the Aceh Reintegration Agency is only doing community-level projects to help improve village economies and life in general, ranging from irrigation ditches to farm equipment to new schools.
Relief agencies are warning the government not to just throw money at problems in Aceh, such as massive unemployment, but rather "target directly what people can do," Sandra Hamid of the Asia Foundation said.
The IOM distributed seed money to 230 villages for "quick impact" community projects. In one village, locals voted to use the US$5,500 to buy equipment to do wedding catering so they could continue to draw income.
But GAM continues to complain that large-scale programs are too slow in coming. Bin Ibrahim, the rebel negotiator, even suggested recently that a new generation of GAM fighters could rise up if they felt they were not getting in on the peace dividend.
"Most GAM fighters are still jobless and living in abject poverty," he told journalists last week, adding that many GAM supporters were still upset with provisions of the autonomy law.
No peace deal is going to be perfect, but what is different this time around is that the political and military elite of both Indonesia and GAM continue to support it, as well as most of Aceh's 4 million people.
"We need to honor this peace because it took us many years and several peace processes to get where we are today," Yudhoyono told a international conference on Monday to discuss Aceh's future.
And today in Indonesia, former combatants are debating Aceh's future around tables instead of in rice paddies and in jungle-covered mountains armed with machine guns.
That in itself is undoubtedly a success.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.