Tn. Arie Rukmantara and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The controversial bill on Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam governance would not make the tsunami-ravaged province into a federal state as some people feared, a group of constitutional law experts and political scientists told the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Constitutional law professor Sri Soemantri said the bill clearly stated Aceh was part of Indonesia. "I was earlier concerned about the title of the bill, but I stopped worrying about federalism after I reviewed the content," Sri said to questions from legislators.

The senior lecturer at Padjadjaran University's School of Law asked legislators to include articles in the bill to monitor the establishment of qanun, or regional regulations, issued by the Aceh legislative council.

"Monitoring would be mandatory to ensure (the regulations) are in line with the laws of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia," Soemantri said.

Allowing the qanun, he argued, would make Aceh legally distinct from the rest of Indonesia. The Aceh legislative council, however, could easily pass a series of qanun that were not in line with Indonesian law, he said.

Fellow constitutional law expert Ismail Sunny said the central government needed to retain authority in some areas of government. He suggested the legislators review articles on the position of the Wali Nanggroe, or state leader, because its powers could overlap with those of the provincial governor.

Meanwhile, political expert Ichlasul Amal said the Acehnese only expected Indonesian acknowledgement of their identity. "That is the main point. The substance of the bill is little different from the existing laws on Aceh," he said.

Soemantri and Ichasul said legislators should scrap articles involving the establishment of a special rights tribunal in Aceh because it was unnecessary. "We have the Constitution, human rights law and a law for a human rights tribunal that applies nationwide. There is no need to set up a special rights tribunal in Aceh," Soemantri said.

The experts told legislators their main challenge was to synchronize the principles in the Constitution with the content of the memorandum of understanding signed by the government and the Free Aceh Movement last year.

Another constitutional law expert, Satya Arinanto, said the bill also needed to be harmonized with other laws governing Aceh. "Without disregarding the Acehnese who compiled the bill, it is obvious that (the bill) contains articles from some existing laws with some modifications," he said.

Separately, Aceh leaders held a meeting with Golkar Party heads, urging them to speed up the deliberation of the bill.

"We come here to urge Golkar, as the biggest faction in the House and whose leader (Jusuf Kalla) heads the special committee on the Aceh governance bill, to speed up the deliberation of the bill," Aceh acting governor Mustafa Abu Bakar said after the meeting.

Mustafa said Aceh leaders would continue to lobby all factions at the House to speed up deliberations of the bill. Kalla said he had instructed the Golkar faction to complete the deliberations of the bill before March 31 as mandated by the Helsinki deal.

Some contentious issues in the bill on Aceh governance

Its name: the bill on Aceh governance

• About Aceh governance:
  • The form of Aceh governance (Article 2)
  • The borders of Aceh (Article 3)
  • The authorities (Chapter IV and Chapter V)
• About the Aceh legislative council
  • Its authority to approve central government or House of Representatives decisions on Aceh (Article 20 Paragraph (1)
• About the post of Wali Naggroe (Chapter XI)
• About economy and finance (Chapter XXIII and XXV)
  • Revenue sharing between the Aceh administration and central government