BY THE JAKARTA GLOBE
Jakarta,
TAG – Officials in Jakarta have lashed out at the Aceh administration for its
insistence on flying the flag of a now-disbanded separatist group as its
provincial standard.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said
in Jakarta on Thursday that he would take all steps to ensure that the flag,
branded “separatist,” was not raised on Aug. 15 as planned by Aceh authorities
after talks with the central government aimed at ending the controversial plan
fell through.
“I’ll write a letter to the Aceh
governor, as will the coordinating minister for political, legal and security
affairs,” he said.
“The qanun on which the plan is based is
not yet official, so the new flag can’t be used,” he said, referring to Aceh’s
adopted Islamic title for bylaws issued in the province. As with local
regulations issued elsewhere in the country, qanun are trumped by national
laws.
Gamawan said a team sent to Aceh to
negotiate with the provincial administration would return on Aug. 31, at which
point he would hold talks with them. But until then, he warned, the local
authorities were prohibited from flying the flag.
Gamawan’s remarks came in the wake of an
announcement late on Wednesday by the provincial administration that it would
raise the flag for the first time on Aug. 15, to mark the eighth anniversary of
the peace deal that ended the three-decade-long insurgency waged by the
separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), now defunct.
Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah, a former
GAM official, and the provincial legislature — dominated by the Aceh Party, founded
by GAM ex-members — insist that the decision to adopt the GAM flag as the
provincial standard reflects the popular sentiment in the province.
However,
the central government argues that it goes against national laws banning the
display of separatist insignia.[]
Jakarta Seethes as Talks On Aceh GAM Flag Fail
Reviewed by theacehglobe
on
July 26, 2013
Rating:

No comments: