M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The government and the House of Representatives should not water down powers granted to future Aceh administrations because they would be in violation of last year's Helsinki peace accord, a coalition of non-governmental organizations says.
The Acehnese Network for Democracy said it was gravely concerned about a deal recently struck between members of the House's working committee, which ruled that local government policies had to be made in accordance with central government regulations.
"This will reduce the authority of future governments in Aceh, which (according to the Helsinki deal) should have power over public and administrative affairs," Ibrahim Gani of the state Syah Kuala University told a discussion here Tuesday.
The Helsinki accord gives local governments in Aceh authority over public affairs, but not foreign affairs, external defense, national security, monetary and fiscal policies, the justice system and religion.
A draft of the governance bill proposed by Acehnese representatives gives Aceh governments the authority to regulate the province using local bylaws, or qanun.
"Replacing qanun with government regulations in the bill indicates that the Jakarta (central) government and political parties are reluctant to give Acehnese ways to rule themselves," Ibrahim said.
The coalition was also dismayed by a new provision agreed to by committee members, which made optional a former mandatory requirement for local political parties to field a minimum 30 percent of women as candidates.
Women's activist Soraya Kamaruzzaman said activists were "baffled" by the development. "The 30 percent condition was never discussed at length during a discussion in the special committee, and now suddenly they have made a radical change that would only put women's political rights at risk," she said.
The coalition also opposed an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) suggestion to require local political parties to join with national entities to contest regional and provincial elections.
PDI-P legislators have generally opposed last year's peace deal in Helsinki signed between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). They suspect local political parties in Aceh will become vehicles for former separatist movements to revive their fight for independence.
Acehnese gubernatorial candidate and leader of the GAM-affiliated NGO, the Center for Acehnese Referendum (SIRA), Muhammad Nazar, said the House and the government's backroom dealings over the bill were making the Acehnese increasingly worried.
"Acehnese people are beginning to become concerned about the development (of the bill) and the possible breakdown of peace," he said.
Nazar said GAM had not ruled out the possibility of reporting the central government to Aceh peace monitoring group the Crisis Management Initiative for producing a law that violated the Helsinki pact.