Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – An internal rift has forced the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to drop its ambition to field gubernatorial candidates in the upcoming direct elections, a reliable source says.
The bickering broke out during a close-door conference in Banda Aceh last week after some GAM leaders insisted on a coalition with existing Indonesian political parties – something that GAM's top leaders have flatly rejected.
"The latest development in Banda Aceh is that (designated GAM prime minister) Malik Mahmood has decided GAM will not field its own candidates. Everyone can run for the elections but nobody may claim to represent GAM," a GAM leader who attended the meeting told The Jakarta Post.
During the meeting from May 22 through 24, leaders voted for former GAM guerrilla leader Tgk. Naziruddin and Aceh activist Muhammad Nazar as GAM's governor and deputy governor candidates respectively.
Naziruddin is a former GAM rebel soldier who led guerrillas in the Batee Illiek area, while Nazar is an executive of the GAM-affiliated Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA).
Naziruddin and Nazar defeated seven other candidate pairs in the vote. However, according to the source, many other candidates would not admit defeat, insisting GAM leaders join politicians from existing political parties to ensure GAM won more of the popular vote.
The source said some factions had pushed for veteran United Development Party (PPP) leader Hasbi Abdullah to pair with Muhammad Nazar. However, top GAM leaders such as Mahmood had balked at any moves to join existing political parties.
To end the bickering that was threatening GAM's integrity, Mahmood decided that GAM would not field candidates for the gubernatorial election, the source said.
Other GAM leaders against coalitions with existing political parties are top executives in exile Zaini Abdullah, Bakhtiar Abdullah, and Sofyan Dawood.
As part of the Helsinki peace deal signed with the government last August, GAM demanded, and won, the right to become a political party in its own right and field independent candidates in all of Aceh's regional elections. This right is expected to be passed into law when the House of Representatives finishes its deliberations on the Aceh governance bill later this year.
Mohammed Nur Djuli, a member of GAM's negotiating team during last year's Helsinki talks, played down the reports of internal conflicts at the conference. "I can confirm that Naziruddin and Muhammad Nazar won the recent candidate selection," Nur Djuli told The Jakarta Post by phone from Malaysia.
More than 80 GAM representatives from the United States, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Australia, and Sweden attended GAM's conference. They joined other GAM members from North Sumatra, Java and 17 other areas in the archipelago.
In related development, Aceh Governor Mustafa Abubakar said he had not set a schedule for local elections because the Aceh governance bill had not been passed by the House. "We (the Aceh administration) are now registering voters and hoping that the process can be completed by October," Mustafa said.
About 2.7 million Acehnese will be eligible to elect governors, regents and mayors when the regional elections take place.
Other parties have also selected their candidates for the gubernatorial elections. They are Malik Raden-Sayed Fuad Zakaria, for the Golkar Party; Tamlicha Ali-Mukhlih Mukhtar (Reform Star Party); Iskandar Husein-Thantawi Ishak (Crescent Star Party); and Mustafa Abubakar-Humam Hamid (National Mandate Party and the PPP).