Acehnese Not Independent
Friday, 15 December, 2006 | 14:02 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The victory of Irwandi Yusuf and Muhammad Nazar in the Aceh regional leaders election on December 11 shows the dependence of the Acehnese. “The Acehnese were pleased at that time with the fact that the independent candidate would not win,” said Otto Syamsudin Ishak, an Aceh observer from the Imparsial NGO, yesterday (14/12).

The reason for this, said Otto, is that for the Acehnese, an independent candidate's victory can mean the Acehnese are not dependent. The victory means that the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) will be integrated into the central government. “Basically, the regional election is a part of the integration process itself,” he said.

The Acehnese now and before the election, said Otto, are in confusion. “They have a different culture, reading from backwards,” he said. This makes the sentence “independen tidak mungkin menang” (“independent candidate is impossible to win”) is read by the Acehnese “menang tidak mungkin independen” (“winning is impossible for independent candidate” or “after winning, it is impossible to be independent”).

Executive Director of Indo Barometer Political Studies Institute, Muhammad Qadari, said Irwandi's victory is not a threat. Qadari agrees that the result of the Aceh regional leaders election will ease the process of Aceh integration into the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

The European Union Monitoring Mission asked to be involved in the second round of the Aceh regional leaders’ election at several regencies. The European Union assigned the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) whose duty officially ends today.

“We want to continue being involved in the election of new political leaders in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam starting from the regent and governor and helping the peace process. Pieter Feith is willing to do the task,” said Glyn Ford, Head of the European Commission's Aceh Regional Leaders Election Monitoring Team, after meeting with the Vice President.

TITIS S AND BADRIAH