Alfian, Banda Aceh – Aceh's leading local parties have promised sharia law during their recent campaigns, bidding to win the upcoming legislative elections and a political chance to reinstate the province's special identity as "Mecca's verandah".
At least, the Aceh Party (PA), the Acehnese People's Independent Aspiration Party (SIRA) and the People's Aceh Party (PRA) have all taken up this unique theme in their campaigns to win the hearts of the people, clerics and pesantrens.
While all agreeing that Islamic teachings have for a long time taken root in Aceh, the parties have different ideas about the implementation of sharia.
The Aceh Party, established and fully supported by former combatants of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), says Aceh needs sharia law, but not now. Instead, it says, Aceh should pursue a full implementation of the 2005 Helsinki peace pact, to improve the community's social welfare.
Adopting Islamic values in daily life is supposed to be an individual obligation, without any external repressive factors, Aceh Party spokesman Adnan Beuransyah says. "Islam is supposed to be a rahmatan lil a'lamin [blessing for the universe]."
Adnan says his party is, in fact, fighting for a full implementation of the Helsinki MoU signed by the Indonesian government and GAM in 2005, a cornerstone peace agreement ending years of bloody conflicts and giving a political chance to the Acehnese to create a civil society, a democratic government and with almost full autonomy in its home affairs.
The peace agreement, however, makes no single mention of the sharia, which would be fully implemented after the pact's goals were achieved.
SIRA chairman Muhammad Nazar says his party would adopt Islamic teachings in all areas, because "Islam can not be seen as just a criminal code," he said.
Nazar, also the Aceh's vice governor, says sharia was introduced to the provincial administration because it benefitted the people and was in keeping with universal humanistic values.
"Those who have a different ideology to the Acehnese people do not really need to protest against Islamic law, because Islamic punishment does not dominate the legal system in Aceh.
"Lashing punishments can only be handed down if evidence is found, and these punishments are only given at a very soft level," Nazar said.
The People's Aceh Party (PRA) have a more firm stance about the introduction of Islamic law. "The implementation of sharia is clearly political driven. This issue has been used by the central government to silence turbulence in Aceh," PRA Secretary-General Thamren Ananda said.
If PRA wins the legislative election, it would hold a referendum to find out whether Aceh wants to maintain Islamic law or drop it, Thamren said. "We will ask the public to criticize existing qanuns (bylaws)," he said.
According to Thamren, Islam was important to Acehnese even without sharia. "The current system is more like an Arabization movement," he said.
Since 1999, Aceh has been preparing its institutional system to adopt sharia law. The biggest step came when the law on special autonomy was passed in 2001, paving the way for the Islamic court to also try criminal cases.
As of today, the westernmost province has passed three bylaws forbidding gambling, alcohol consumption, and khalwat (filthy acts).