Two new provinces declared in Aceh

Two new Aceh provinces have been declared. They are Aceh Leuser Antara (ALA) and Aceh Barat Selatan (Abas). They declared their independence from existing province, Nangroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD).

The declaration was made in Jakarta, a move declarators claimed to urge House of Representatives pave the way for deliberation of laws of the establihment of new provinces.

In late August, Indonesian Minister of Internal Affair M Ma’ruf said that he could apreciate the intention of subdistricts in Aceh to establish new province, but he iterated that multiplication of Aceh into several provinces will take time and long process.

The 5 subdistrict in Aceh that already commited to create ALA province are subdistricts in neighboring province of North Sumatra. They are Central Aceh, South East Aceh, Aceh Singkil, Gayo Luewe, and Bener Meriah.

According to Ma’ruf, rather than working on the creation of new province, he suggest people in those subdistricts make contribution toward implementation of peace agreement that has been made by Indonesian government with Aceh separatist movement (GAM).

Declarators of Aceh's new provinces said the establishment ALA and Abas Province is already on the agenda of Indonesian parliament and Ministry of Internal Affair. But so far the Aceh government is reluctant in providing formal recommendation to the central government.

Indonesian military is reportedly support the partition of Aceh into two or more provinces as it believes such partition would weaked the seccessionis movement in the province.

Well, experience has told us that partition of troubled province is not easy. Remember that in 1999, The House of Representatives (DPR) endorsed government's controversial move to divide Papua into three provinces through Law No. 45/1999. But until now, conflicts remains in Papua over the partition.

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