By: Ismail) *
Former Commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) Muzakir Manaf, who currently serves as chair of the Aceh Transition Committee (KPA) and at the same time chairman of the Aceh Party, briefly planned to hold a referendum in Aceh, with Aceh’s choice to remain part of Indonesia or Aceh will become a new country like the case of East Timor which is now the country of Timor Leste.
The idea came to the public after the KPU vote count showed that Prabowo’s Sandiaga candidate lost nationally but won in Aceh, where Paslon number 02 managed to win a landslide victory with 81% of the vote.
Even though the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto has said that all the regulations governing the referendum have been revoked by the government, for example the MPR Decree number 8 of 1988 or MPR Decree number 4 of 1993 concerning the referendum.
“So there is no room for a referendum in positive law in Indonesia. So it is not relevant anymore, especially if we face the international court that regulates this issue, it is also irrelevant, “he added.
On the previous occasion, Marzuki AR who was a former GAM combatant had explained why the referendum-related discourse was reappointed.
One reason, “We know that Indonesia, in a few moments, will be colonized by foreigners. That’s what we worry about. Because of this, Aceh is better off following East Timor. Why isn’t Aceh, “explained Muzakir.
Speaker of the House Bambang Soesatyo also rejected the referendum discourse raised by Muzakir Manaf.
It said that the tagas rejection, given that Indonesia is a sovereign unitary state and NKRI is at a fixed price.
On the other hand, the Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, considered that the referendum discourse in Aceh that Muzakir Manaf had raised was due to the emotions concerned.
“The issue is not fundamental. It’s just emotion. Emotion because it doesn’t win, ”Moeldoko said.
It also suspected that the referendum idea was echoed because the party he led, the Aceh Party, failed to achieve optimal votes in Aceh as desired.
Moeldoko also considered that the discourse stated by Muzakir was only limited to academic discourse, so that it did not need to be overreacted.
The problem is, why is the referendum agenda being rolled out at this time, after 14 years ago a peace agreement was signed and there was also the Aceh Party which was initiated by former GAM combatants.
However, not all internal Aceh Party administrators and former GAM combatants agreed with the referendum discourse voiced by his former commander, Muzakir Manaf.
For example Kamarudin Abubakar, who served as Secretary General of the Aceh Party, stated that the referendum discourse did not need to be continued even though it was agreed that the points of the agreement to end the conflict contained in the MoU need to be resolved.
He also reminded that one of the points written on the Helsinki peace agreement was that Aceh had the right to have a flag. However, the flag symbol proposed so far has not been approved by the central government because it is considered to be similar to the GAM flag, a former separatist group that has reconciled through the Helsinki MoU.
To minimize larger problems, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) will provide direction to the Aceh provincial government in addressing the emergence of the Aceh referendum discourse. The Ministry of Home Affairs hopes that the discourse will not be exaggerated.
“That (referendum) doesn’t need to be exaggerated, it’s nothing. Pak Menkopolhukan has been firm about the issue, “he said.
On the discourse related to this referendum, the people are certainly asked not to be affected by issues and discourses related to the referendum that emerged in Aceh. The Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security Wiranto ensured that a referendum would not occur in Indonesia.
The community is certainly expected not to get caught up in hoaxes related to the Aceh referendum discourse. Wiranto also said that the public understood that the referendum was no longer valid in the decision-making system in Indonesia. This can be seen from the number of reports and talks about referendums on social media, which number is only small.
He also appealed to the TNI to anticipate the development of issues regarding the Aceh referendum in order to provide security for the people.
) * The author is a sociopolitical observer
