Sri Muninggar Saraswati and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Aceh leaders are optimistic that Jakarta will accommodate their people's political aspirations in the new bill on Aceh governance.

Members of the Advocacy Team for the bill on Aceh governance said they had already met with the leaders of major political parties, national officials, House of Representatives legislators and activists to ask for their political support of the bill.

During the past few days they have met Golkar Party and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) leaders along with former president Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid.

"Although they have already given their political support (to the bill) symbolically, we do hope they give their full backing to the bill (when it reaches the House for deliberation)," team leader Abdullah Saleh said.

The PDI-P has expressed its opposition to the peace deal signed by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) last August in Hensinki. The agreement ended three decades of bloody conflict during which more than 12,000 people died.

PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri told the Aceh leaders that in principle she supported all negotiations to end the conflict. However, Megawati said she had reservations about the issue being "internationalized" under the current deal, and said a permanent solution must be sought that kept Aceh part of the Unitary State of Indonesia. Gus Dur has voiced similar reservations to the bill but has promised to reread it.

Team member Mawardi Ismail said despite Megawati and Gus Dur's political stance, the pair had created a strong foundation for an Aceh peace.

"Before his election as president, Gus Dur supported a self-determination referendum for Aceh if it was deemed the best way to settle the issue... Megawati has also been very eager to settle the conflict peacefully (in the past)," he said. Megawati's government imposed martial law in Aceh in 2003 and ordered the deployment of troops to restore security and order in the province.

Asked on a possible rejection of the Aceh people's political aspirations in the bill, the team said the bill was not a fixed price and it did not contain crucial points which were completely strange to the existing political system and the law.

In the House of Representatives, a group of retired military officers demanded that the House drop the bill on Aceh governance because they fear that it opens doors to Aceh's independence.

About 50 retired officers, many of them were former generals aged between 70 and 80, aired their concern during a meeting with the House of Representatives. "It could lead to separatism," Lt. Gen. (ret) Suryadi, who chairs the Retired Army Officers Union, told the legislators.

There are a number of articles in the bill that allow the resource-rich province to split from Indonesia, he said. One clear example, Suryadi argued, is the title, which suggests that Aceh is an independent entity.

Among most senior protesting officers were Lt. Gen. (ret) Purbo S. Suwondo, Maj. Gen. (ret) Kiki Syahnakri. Lt. Gen. (ret) Syaiful Sulun and Lt. Gen. (ret) Kharis Suhud, who is a former House speaker.

The House of Representatives is currently seeking ideas from competent sources to finalize the bill that will become the basis for forming the Aceh government as mandated by the Helsinki peace accord between the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that ended three-decade of war.

"What's the urgency for the deliberating the bill? Reject it and draft a better one," Purbo said. To the surprise of the former officers, most of whom are elderly in their 70s and 80s, some legislators defended the bill.