OE Watch Commentary: In recent years Indonesia has battled not only terrorist groups such as Jemaa Islamiya but also separatist insurgents in disparate regions of the country, such as Aceh and West Papua. On 1 February, the Indonesian-language website beritasatu.com, featured the excerpted article about how a delegation of leaders from the separatist insurgent Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) based in the Philippines visited Indonesia along with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to learn about Indonesia’s experience in peacemaking. According to the article, MILF specifically sought out Jusuf Kalla, who is currently Indonesia’s vice president and formerly negotiated a peace deal in Aceh.
Kalla noted that Indonesia has been involved in efforts to attain peace in the southern Philippines since as early as 1996. It was that year when the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Philippine government signed a peace deal in Jakarta that later proved unable to be implemented and fell apart. According to Kalla, the factionalization of the insurgency between MNLF and MILF, the latter of which rejected the 1996 peace deal because of concerns that it granted the insurgents insufficient regional autonomy, had always made it difficult to achieve lasting peace.
Kalla drew similarities between the conflict in the southern Philippines and in Aceh and West Papua. In particular, the conflicts in southern Philippines and in Aceh were both Islamist insurgencies that have required granting some autonomy for the insurgents and allowing a level of sharia law in the insurgents’ region in order to achieve peace. According to the chairman of MILF, who led the delegation, the conflict in Aceh was basically the same as the one in the southern Philippines.
According to Kalla there are two key components to a peace mission: mutual respect and compromise. The leadership of Kalla and Indonesia’s prior experience in engaging in peace talks in Aceh and West Papua as well as countering terrorist groups, provides an opportunity to extend advice to other countries in Southeast Asia undergoing political violence and attempts at peace and reconciliation. End OE Watch Commentary (Zenn)