Aceh Kita - March 16, 2006

Radzie, Banda Aceh - Civilian activist have launched
the Acehnese People’s Party Preparatory Committee
(Komite Persiapan Partai Rakyat Aceh, KP PRA), which
represents the precursor for the formation of the
first local political party in Aceh. The launch -
which took place at a restaurant in the Lamnyong
area of Banda Aceh on Thursday March 16 - was
attended by around 500 party supporters and a number
of other invited guests including Juha Christensen
from the Aceh Monitoring Mission.

The chairperson of KP PRA, Thamrin Ananda, said in a
political speech that preparatory committees have
already been formed in 11 regencies/cities in Aceh
and they are targeting a total of 12. “In the
regulations it says that branches must exist in 50
percent of the regencies/cities that exist in Aceh”,
said Ananda.

Ananda said that the idea of forming a local
political party was because there is already a clear
legal basis that flows from the Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between the Indonesian
government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that was
signed in Helsinki on August 15 last year.

In addition to this, during the congress of the
Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA)
that was held at the beginning of 2006, they agreed
to form a local political party in Aceh. This was
because a local political party can be the entry
point for improving the welfare of the people who
for too long have been afflicted by conflict.

The formation of the party received warm greetings
among a number of circles both within in Aceh,
nationally and from political parties in other
countries including Malaysia, Bolivia, Venezuela and
Germany.

In the election of regional heads or Pilkada that
will be held next June after the enactment of the
Law on a Government for Aceh, the KP PRA will not be
putting forward its own candidates even though this
is possible through the nomination of independent
candidates. This is to demonstrate a commitment to
an alternative government supported by a united
national front.

“We will support candidates that are put up in the
form a national united front with a platform of a
clean, democratic, populist government that is free
of foreign intervention”, said Ananda.

The former Student Solidarity for the People (SMUR)
activist added that a local political party must
have a different character from the national parties
that have long existed in Aceh. “The character I
mean is a local party’s courage to place the people
or the masses as the subject, not just an object
during elections”, he said adding that the soon to
be formed PRA will place the people as subjects. It
is because of this that the PRA will orientate its
membership towards farmers, the urban poor and
students.

In its future program, the PRA will focus on the
nationalisation of the management of natural
resources. To date the natural wealth of Aceh has
largely been controlled by superpower countries such
as the United States and Japan. The distribution of
natural wealth between the central government and
Aceh has also been unclear, even though a 70 percent
(Aceh) and 30 percent (Jakarta) share has already
been agreed to. “This kinds of issues are not
clearly referred to in the Draft Law on a Government
for Aceh and the MoU”, said Ananda. “So in the
future it will reopen up the possibility foreign
control”. [dzie]

[Translated by James Balowski.]

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