Should a Plan to Grant an Amnesty to Din Minimi be Executed?

In a press conference on Tuesday, National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Sutiyoso was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying that "Din’s group were neither separatists nor criminals but simply disgruntled former GAM (Free Aceh Movement) members, who were unhappy with GAM’s administration of Aceh. The Din Minimi group engaged in a form of resistance. They are unhappy with the former GAM top brass, who now serve in various positions in Aceh local government."  The government will grant amnesty to 150 members of an Acehnese armed group led by Nurdin Ismail aka Din Minimi.

National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Sutiyoso said on Tuesday that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly and the House of Representatives had agreed to give amnesty to the members of the armed group. Sutiyoso said granting amnesty to the group’s members was considered as a conflict resolution measure. “The President’s directive is clear: Solve Din Minimi-related problems with a tender approach. The result is, as you can see, Din has agreed to go down the mountain,” said Sutiyoso.

The intelligence chief said one of Din Minimi's demands was that the government help widows and fatherless children as well as former GAM combatants to have more prosperous lives. However, Sutiyoso said the request would primarily be responded to by local administrations.

Sutiyoso said negotiations between the government and the Din Minimi-led armed group had taken place over the last two months. He corrected previously circulated information that only 11 armed group members had agreed to surrender. Dozens of weapons, munitions, magazines and grenades belonging to the armed group were reportedly handed over and would be transported to BIN headquarters in Jakarta.

Why is politician unhappy with the government's plan to pardon Din Minimi and his members?

Effendi Simbolon, member of the House of Representatives' Commission I overseeing defense, foreign affairs and information, for instance, argued that granting an amnesty to Din Minimi and his men was not a solution. Therefore, the government should reconsider its plan to grant the amnesty or risk seeing an upsurge in separatist movements.

The government was wrong to compromise with Din and his fellow insurgents, who included an amnesty as one of six prerequisites for surrendering to government forces. "Why on earth is President  (Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo) allowing terrorists to dictate terms? Why on earth are we, a sovereign nation, compromising with separatists? Is Jokowi aware (of the potential consequences)?”said Effendi as quoted by the Jakarta Post and Kompas.com recently.

Apart from his disagreement, Simbolon, the lawmaker of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle Faction, acknowledged that the President has the authority to grant amnesties, but insisted that he must discuss potential amnesties for separatist groups with the House and other parties first.  Effendi said he agreed with the stance of National Police chief Gen.Badrodin Haiti, who has mooted legal proceedings against Din and his followers. "We must uphold state sovereignty and the rule of law. We must not hand out amnesties willy-nilly. Amnesties are not the solution," Effendi said.

Jokowi, he added, should have learned a lesson from the Helsinki agreement between the administration of then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which, he claimed, besmirched the state’s honor and sovereignty.

"Of the total 100 items in the agreement, 98 items were in favor of GAM. Would you say that the Helsinki agreement was a sterling piece of work by the Yudhoyono and vice president Jusuf Kalla administration? No indeed. As such, President Jokowi should not repeat their mistake, he should not perpetuate this falsehood that dealing with separatists and pandering to their whims is the proper way of tackling separatism," the legislator went on.

For remember, after signed in 2005, the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Indonesian government and the GAM, ended the three-decade-long bloody conflict that is thought to have resulted in the death of 20,000 to 30,000 Acehnese civilians, thousands of combatants on both sides and caused an unquantifiable amount of damage to public infrastructure and private property.

However, Effendi Simbolon’s statement represented the spirit of realism paradigm. In the context of security and intelligence study, realism paradigm is a paradigm which considers to take national interest in the main priority whatever all risk will be taken. So, the realism paradigm followers cannot understand and cannot dialogue if national security is in the danger and regularly realism paradigm should be done with hard approach with the legal process as a main measures.

Previously, Din Minimi urged  the government to pay  attention to the safety of his family while he is undergoing  the legal process. It means that  Din Minimi and his members also agree with the law enforcement process on him and his members or followers. In response to Din Minimi's good intention, the central government has a plan to give an amnesty to Din Minimi.

I think the plan to give an amnesty to Din Minimi is a good one because this is one of steps of soft approach or a tender approach. The plan is rational by considering that Din Minimi’s group is not a rebel group, which has an  intention to separate Aceh from Indonesia. They also do not get involved in criminal activities. So, Din Minimi’s struggle is actually an auto-criticism for former GAM members who then become the Aceh government officials. Basically, Din Minimi and his group got involved in rebellious activities as he was disappointed with the ex-GAM rebels who have become bureaucrats in Aceh but they are seen failing to improve the prosperity of the GAM members.

*) The writer earned his masters degree from the University of Indonesia (UI).