Acehnese Youngsters: Those Far Away from Home

The night had been half way through, but Zul Asmi was still awake. Many cigarettes were continuously lighted up. The man had been seriously watching a talk show in television on the proposal of law on Aceh. Sometimes he uttered comments or even protests over the debate, sometimes a grunt of dissatisfaction to a friend watching the show with him.

The young man from Kuta Binjei, Julok, East Aceh had always been closely following the update of situation in Aceh. When the disastrous tsunami hit the land in 2004, he directly volunteered himself to provide aid. For 15 days, together with other thousands volunteers, he carried dead bodies, prayed for them according to Islamic tradition and buried them. As a consequence, his study in the Faculty of Law, Indonesia Islamic University (UII) Yogyakarta had been left unattended for a little while.

Going to college in Java island, Zul Asmi had never disengaged himself from Aceh. The skinny young man also formed an organization of students from Aceh, which he named Ikatan Mahasiswa Korban Daerah Operasi Militer Aceh/ The Association of Aceh Military Operation Territory Victim Students (IMKDA).

The organization was small. They borrow a corner in Bale Gading, Aceh Students Residential House in Sagan as their secretariat. Only 14 people become the members, while the organization was structured into two divisions: one on network and the other on education. Asmi was the chairman.

“We initially needed a media to gather all students that became the victim of military operation that got scholarship to go to college free,” he told me.

The program of sending Aceh students to college for free was initiated by Asmi’s college and two other Islamic colleges in Yogyakarta, namely Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) and Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (UAD). The program had been providing opportunities for many students (both men and women) from Aceh to go to colleges in Yogyakarta since 1999.

According to SF Marbun, the former Rector Assistant of UII, the program was the form of University’s concern to Aceh. He did not expect to lose a generation at the expense of war between GAM and Indonesia.

“We presented the arguments to the people of Aceh and alim ulamas – religious leaders in Aceh – when the latter intended to meet the members of House of Representative in Jakarta,” Marbun said.

A year after Soeharto fell, the socio-political situation in Indonesia was opened. The people began to gain their freedom of expression, without fearing military torture, jail punishment or abduction.

The ideas of ‘freedom’, ‘referendum’, and ‘federalism’ emerged everywhere, from Irian Jaya to Aceh in the tip of Sumatera.
“Let us work for a better Indonesia, since when it happens, Islam will also gain its grandeur. It is better to do so rather than establishing independent, small countries,” Marbun said.

It was not clear whether it was because of UII’s success in imposing their arguments or of other causes, the meeting; which was attended by 30 alim ulamas and Aceh people figutres; had agreed to provide scholarship for bright, good mannered, but poor because of conflict, Aceh students.

Executing the agreement, UII worked with The Commission for “The Disappeared” and Victims of Violence (Kontras), which selected the candidates of beneficiaries. Kontras was an NGO that concerned to fight for justice for the victim of human rights violence. The institution was founded in Jakarta by Munir, who passed away of poisoned during his air trip to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. State Intelligence was suspected to get involved in this murder case. Although some of the suspects had been dragged to court, many people considered that they only the executors, not the architect.

The activists of Kontras Aceh employed various ways to execute the selection. They put ads in media, printed leaflets, invited journalists to press conferences, designed radio talk show and even directly visited high schools, promoting the scholarship. 30 people were expected to pass the selection every year. Bustami Arifin, te general secretary of Kontras – Aceh at that time was glad to help. The requirements of the program were easy to fulfilled. “He/she (the beneficiary) must be a directly effected victim. The true victim can be their parents,” he said.

Administration business was simple. Just writing letter of willingness and filling forms of parents’ permission.

“So many people were eager to participate, but their school diplomas were unfortunately burnt to ashes,” Bustami said. “We do not accept such candidates as it did not meet the requirements set by the universities.”

In order to check if the candidates truly deserved the scholarship, activists of Kontras – Aceh directly visited their houses. Those who were economically established were dismissed from the list.

“We used to reject one proposal, as the people in question, thanks to our careful checking, had a rich relative owning a big house. This did not meet the requirement,” Bustami said.

The first generation of scholarship beneficiaries comprised of 10 people among 50 tested. The second generation 12, while the third 11. In 2002, the final year of scholarship program, 22 people passed the selection.

Zul Asmi belonged to this last generation.

He took law as his major. The scholarship covered his five years tuition. If he went beyond that span of time, he was supposed to pay his own tuition for the rest of his study time.

The scholarship did not cover daily expenses, however. It was such a luck for Asmi that his older brother sent him some money and the government of Aceh province sometimes offered a hand.

But when these helps came later than he expected, he unwillingly borrowed money from friends. “As soon as the money arrived, I paid the debt,” he said.

On the left side of Bale Gading stood an old house. Huge. Sturdy. The wall was dull. Some people strolled around in front of the building, Aceh women dormitory. One of them was Sitti Halimah. Tall, light skinned, veil wrapped her head, hiding her hair, exposing her face, as Islamic women dress code usually required.

Halimah lived in the dorm. During her four years living in Yogyakarta, not once did she ever go home to Aceh. Sometimes she called her family in Aceh. She took Pshychology, now in her eight semester. Similar to Zul Asmi, she was granted scholarship as the victim of Military Operation Region (DOM).

“My family actually forbade me to leave. Even until now. But I was eager to learn. I thought I had to go to Jogja to study, whatever happened,” she said.

Since Halimah left, her mother had been sick. Depressed.

“My mother should have gone to therapists. It was hard to leave her, as we were very close,” she said.

Separated temporarily from family is likely to be the difficult thing some of scholarship beneficiaries must pass. Parents also seemed to unwillingly let them go. Yet, commitment to study made these Acehnese youngsters stronger.

Muhammad Nasir, a student of Governance Science of Muhamadiyah University Yogyakarta from Idi Cut, East Aceh, was nevertheless not bothered by the feeling of missing family and relatives. His father fully agreed on his leaving, but his mother was a bit anxious.

“I am afraid I cannot see you again,” said Natsir, mimicking her mother.

Yet, the anxiety of Zul Asmi’s parents was more political. They were afraid that their son became the military’s target of operation as he had left Aceh.

“They were afraid that I would be kidnapped, not sent to school,” Asmi said.

Aceh had become the region of military operation for almost a decade; from September 1989 to August 1998. According to the report of Kontras published under the tittle of Aceh Makes Peace with Justice?, 3.430 cases of torture by military, 1.958 cases of missing person, 128 cases of rape, 1.321 cases of murder, and 597 cases of intentional burning occurred during the application of military operation in the regions. All of those cases are ones recorded. There were probably many that were not.

“DOM (Military Operation) had created traumatic experience for Acehnese. The economic was devastated, so was the education,” Asmi said. His father died when he was in the first year of Junior High. His family used to be beaten by the military. His uncle was shot to death, while his brother was shot in his hand, but managed to live.

“I believe DOM is government’s anarchic attitude to its own people, without counting its impacts on humanity and environment. Not many people had known that they were actually robbed by their own country. It was all for the reason of security,” said Halimah whose brother was murdered by GAM because of joining Indonesian Armed Forces.

Although his late brother worked for Indonesia, Halimah strongly detested the Military Operation implemented by Soeharto’s government. According to Halimah, it was better to bring to court those who did wrong. Such a process is better rather than setting war with the opponent.

“It is because of conflict that the people will not grow up healthily. And it is the very conflict that causes the nurturance of the causes of separatism,” she said angrily.

The conflict was less intense between 1999 and 2002. Some of Aceh youngsters were able to go to school again. The program of free school for victims of DOM run smoothly, though the number of beneficiaries never met the intended target.

Unfortunately, the situation in Aceh heated up again during Megawati’s presidency. Megawati was known to be close to the military. She even did less effort to inquire justice for her supporters who died or missed in defending their party office from hoodlums’ raid on 27 July 1996. Megawati decided to re-impose the military operation in Aceh in 2003. The scholarship program was consequently halted. Aceh was torn apart.

“We were disappointed to see the program was devastated. We were really sorry. Kontras has big expectation that this program would sustain, but it depended on the universities,” said Bustami.

I confirmed this to Marbun.

“Please go to the university. I don’t have the same position as before,” he said shortly.


*)Widiyanto is the contributor of Pantau Syndcate. This article used to be published in the syndicate.