Banda Aceh – Indonesia's parliamentary elections on Monday have been enthusiastically awaited by the majority of the country's voters. Far in the north, in the troubled province of Aceh, however, the democratic festivities are seen as a dilemma by most people.
On the one hand, people keen to exercise their suffrage have been worried of possible retribution from the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has waged a guerrilla war in Aceh since 1976 seeking independence from Indonesia. On the other, those who do not want to vote have been wondering what the military, the martial law administrator in the province, will do to them if they do not show up at polling stations. "What else can we do?" pedicab driver Amat told Kyodo News early this week while waiting for passengers in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh during the election campaign period.
The 43-year-old man stared at an election banner reading, "Knitting dignified Aceh into the framework of the unitary state of Republic of Indonesia." He is apparently was more afraid of the military than the rebels.
"I'm going to vote ... for the yellow," Amat said, referring to the color of the former ruling Golkar Party. "I just seek safety," he added, saying Aceh is under the military's control.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri imposed martial law on Aceh on May 19 last year. Since then, almost 1,800 rebels, soldiers, policemen and civilians have been killed in the province, situated on the northern tip of Sumatra Island.
Cigarette vendor Mukhlisin, 26, and video compact disc vendor Safrul Razi, 33, shared similar views with Amat. "The most important thing for me is that I can carry on with my daily business as usual," Razi said while serving customers at Pasar Atjeh, the provincial capital's main market in the heart of the city. Mukhlisin said he may not vote because his hometown in North Aceh Regency is a GAM stronghold.
An official at the Aceh branch of the government-sanctioned National Commission of Human Rights, who declined to be named, told Kyodo News that many ordinary Acehnese faced the dilemma and generally just want to be on the safe side. "They must vote or they will be labeled as GAM members or sympathizers," the official said.
Legislative candidates have received intimidation, believed to be from GAM, with at least one candidate being killed in North Aceh and two others missing in North and South Aceh soon after a permanent list of the candidates was announced in early February, she said.
"We visited the family of the slaughtered legislative candidate and they were pretty sure that the killers were the rebels, but we haven't been able to confirm their claim," the official said.
The intimidation, she said, has forced many legislative candidates to move from their residences in villages to cities.
Officials of the Regional General Election Commission and the provincial Statistics Agency were also not brave enough to register voters in villages and remote places in "black areas" under GAM's influence.
The agency and the election commission officials have considered it too risky to register voters after GAM rebels allegedly killed two agency officials who were visiting houses for registration and physically abused some others.
Based on the data of the statistics agency, the number of eligible voters in Aceh is 2.5 million of the total population of approximately 4 million.
The eligible voter figure, however, was obtained not based on house-to-house surveys as in other provinces, but based on family registration cards kept on file in sub-district offices in Aceh and red-and-white identity cards issued by the martial law administrator.
"The Acehnese people, they have hopes for safety, for a peaceful life, but at the same time have to face the reality of how difficult it is to gain the privileges," the human rights commission official said.