A coalition from Aceh to Mindanao Badrus Sholeh  ;  The writer lectures in international relations at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta

JAKARTA POST, 29 Desember 2014

                                                

                                                                                                                       

People in Southeast Asia are sharing and learning from each other in developing their states and communities. The establishment of ASEAN in 1967 was also to officially unite in a regional organization to prevent conflicts and wars. The transition of East Timor (now Timor Leste) in 1999 was the first test to ASEAN members in supporting the peaceful transition. Although ASEAN was not ready to deliver peacekeeping forces, its members — Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines — delivered their representatives to East Timor. The dominance of Australia in the transition process raised high expectations from the Indonesian government to the support of ASEAN members. A further major test to ASEAN solidarity was the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Aceh after the earthquake and tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004. Also, the European Union and ASEAN established the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) to strengthen the transition of former combatants of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) after the Helsinki peace agreement of Aug. 15, 2005. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) transformed to the 2006 Law on Aceh governance which regulates local parties, oil and gas revenue sharing, and others. On April 9, 2014, three local parties joined the national elections: Aceh Party (PA), Aceh National Party (PNA) and Aceh Peace Party (PDA) in which the PA gained the most or 29 out of 81 seats of the provincial legislative council. The establishment of a local party is a special privilege for Aceh. The mediator of the peace agreement, former Finland president Martti Ahtisaari, considered Aceh peacebuilding, development and democratization as the most successful effort for peace in three decades, the result of hard work by Acehnese, other Indonesians and the international community. Former peace negotiators both from GAM and Indonesia have been invited by the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and other states and conflicting groups to share their experience in peace negotiations and establishing the agreements. On March 27, 2014, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippines government signed a Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, concluding 17 years of negotiations, mediated by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak with support by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and an international monitoring team. Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organizations, was actively involved in monitoring the peace negotiations and implementations in the Southern Philippines. Among the agreement contents is the establishment of a local party in Mandanao. called the United Bangsamoro Justice Party. The plans began a year before, following various consultations with local leaders and the MILF’s central committee. Before joining the 2016 elections in the Philippines, MILF leaders learned from local parties in Aceh, including the Aceh Party, Aceh Peace Party and other stakeholders in Banda Aceh in December 2014. The head of the delegation, Dato Mohammad Zainoddin, was quoted as saying that the politicians wished to learn from the political system and the strategies of the winning party. Currently the laws regulating the establishment of local parties in Mindanao are being discussed in Congress. Just like in Indonesia, some congress members oppose the notion of local parties, which they argued is against the national constitution. Hamid Awaluddin, who led Indonesia’s negotiating team in Finland, had said that the negotiation on local political parties lasted until almost midnight before both parties agreed to local parties, one of the most contentious issues in the negotiations. Also, like in Aceh, a further challenge in the Southern Philippines is disarmament, among the hardest process for combatants. Currently some militant groups inside MILF have disassociated themselves from the agreement and continue to fight against the government of the Philippines. They founded a new organization, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. Abu Sayaf is another group opposing the peace agreement and even express support to jihadist movements in Syria and Iraq. Hence the coalition for peace and security is not only the duty of Acehnese and Bangsamoro people, but should be a systematic movement by states and civil society in Southeast Asia. Peacebuilding in Aceh and the Southern Philippines will strengthen the confidence of Southeast Asian countries in taking more active and stronger roles in international peace initiatives. The establishment of the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) on May 8, 2011 and the ASEAN Political-Security Community by 2015 is a mechanism for ASEAN states to settle disputes and security issues among Southeast Asian countries. It also includes a proposal to create an ASEAN peacekeeping force, which would give opportunities for states and civil society in Southeast Asia to participate in regional and global peace, security and prosperity. ●