A
friend who’s head of the Political and Peace Division of the Aceh National
Party (Partai Nasional Aceh /PNA) forwarded me and some mutual colleagues a
translation of PNA’s Press Release that states the reasons why it refuses to
accept the result of the April 9th Legislative Election.
He
writes, “Thanking you in advance for any action you can take in this matter
towards improving the chances of successful democratization process in this
post-conflict area where the peace process is supposed to be a model of
successful post-conflict management.”
And
here it is [with minor grammar edits]. Please
read and share it.
PNA WILL
RESIST
The Partai Nasional Aceh (PNA) is a local party
formed in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding between the
Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed in Helsinki on
August 15 2005 that ended the 30 year bloody conflict. It was formed by ex-GAM
combatants, former peace negotiators in Helsinki, human
rights/humanitarian/socio-political and women activists, intellectuals,
religious leaders, and traders. It has continually tried to participate in the
democratic political process within the frame of the Constitution of the
Republic of Indonesia in polite, civilized practices and law and order
adherence at all times. However, during the period of this so-called “fiesta of
democracy” in Aceh--the legislative election of April 9 2014-- this patient and
restrained attitude was responded to with intimidation, oppression, cheating,
atrocities and even assassinations by one of its local rival parties, aided by
the machinery and leadership of the local government of Aceh and by the local
electoral commission itself.
From the early days of its formation two years ago
up to the days of the votes counting, PNA has registered all sorts of cheating
and violent actions perpetrated against it by officials of the rival political
party as well as by the electoral commission officers, including such acts as:
1. Murders of one of the ex-regional commanders of
GAM who was at the forefront of the formation of the party, of a school teacher
who had just announced his candidacy for the Aceh house of representatives
(DPRA), of a campaigner who was lynched to death while drinking coffee at a well-known
café in the middle of capital city of North Aceh, and of another while driving
home in his car. A female candidate had
parked her car in the garage of her house when it was burnt down. Several other
cars belonging to party campaigners were completely wrecked. Attempted arsons
on offices and houses belonging to party official are common incidents. Such
incidents continued till the vote counting days.
2. Intimidation of witnesses of PNA at vote
counting centers, where the Party in power [PA, Partai
Aceh] has strong influence, made it impossible for these witnesses to
function and about a hundred of them had to resign, fearing the safety not only
of themselves but also of their families;
3. Intimidation and violence have been
carried out systematically by the Party in power by instructing voters at the
polling stations to vote for the party. Video recordings are available showing
a truck painted with the colors of this party parked at a polling center and
polling officials directing voters where to punch [their
voting card]. When a reporter and cameraman working for a major British
television station asked the policeman guarding the gate to the center why he
allowed the car to be parked there, the policeman said: “They are on patrol.” Upon being asked about officials directing voters where to
punch he said: “He was just trying to help.” Incidents like this are common,
only not that many have been recorded by independent reporters.
4. KIP (Independent Electoral Commission) officials
from the District/Town Councils all the way up to the Provincial levels, as
well as staff carrying out various duties at the polling centers such as the PPK,
PPS and the KPPS have been appointed by the Party in power through the DPRA (Aceh
Parliament) controlled by the Partai Aceh, and some of them are openly members
of the said party. Demands by other parties, local and national, that this
appointment be done by the Central Electoral Commission, were ignored.
5. The mandates of the Electoral Control
Commissions of Bawaslu and Panwas are deliberately not sanctioned by the Aceh
Government, making them unable to function properly, especially when their
assigned budgets and operational facilities were withdrawn by the Aceh
Government.
6. The voting day itself was colored by massive
fraud, whereby KPPS officials openly directed voters where to punch on the
ballot papers. Witnesses could not function fully as pointed out above due to
intimidation. Counting of votes and later the recapitulations processes were
carried out behind closed doors, with the Government saying that these these
processes are an internal matter of the government and that the public and the
press would be given the official tallies when they were ready. On several
occasions there were power outages at the centers, and the counting process was
continued with light provided by small handheld flashlights. As vote counting
continued non-stop all day and all night, many witnesses were too tired to
continue and abandoned their posts. The electoral commission should have
informed the participating parties of this possibility so that shift teams of
witnesses could be arranged in advance.
7. The Aceh government’s partiality in favor of the
Party in power at all levels of the province down to the sub-districts is
openly practiced and well documented, including the use of public funds and
facilities for the purpose of campaigning, issuing threats of dismissals to
civil servants who would fail to carry out instruction to support the
candidates of the Party in power, and awarding governmental cash grants for
mosques and for village heads in front of the polling centers when people are
queuing to vote.
8. Money politics are practiced not only in the
form of donating campaign funds without proper documentation but paying cash to
voters through village heads in what is known as “dawn attacks.”
Based on the cited grave violations of all
electoral rules cited above, the Aceh National Party does hereby state
categorically and firmly that:
-- WE REJECT THE “PEMILU 2014” ELECTION, including all its results
-- WE WILL NO LONGER PARTICIPATE in future Pemilu electoral stages
-- We shall take all other possible and necessary actions to fight for
the political rights and dignity of the Acehnese people
-- We shall conduct resistant actions and instruct all of PNA’s regional
leaderships, cadres, members and those who sympathize with the Party to conduct
actions of resistance at all levels as parts of our self-defense measures
against tyrannical oppression.
We do hereby call on and urge all our pro-democracy
friends and the media to help distribute this public statement as widely as
possible, and we thank all in advance.
Banda Aceh, 19 April 2014
IRWANSYAH
Executive Chairman
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