Indonesia Conference Directory

As a result of recent political dynamic, particularly after the world most complicated simultaneous national elections, Aceh referendum discourse has been echoed by Acehnese local elite. This issue has become an interesting phenomenon to be investigated as Aceh has been granted by the central government by way of a special autonomy scheme to run its government. Is it true that the local Acehnese really want the referendum? Or is it just a discourse enacted by the local elite? The current referendum issue raised by the Acehnese local elite seems to be based on the disappointment of the result of national democratic contestation rather than military oppression and prolong economic resources appropriation by the central government as experienced by the 1999 former referendum. This paper traces the dynamic wave of asymmetric decentralisation in line with the dynamic of the Aceh local politics. First, in the 1956 Formation of Aceh Special Autonomy Province. Second, the Iimplementation of the 1999 law on Aceh Province as a Special Region. Third, the 2001 law on Special Autonomy for Aceh as Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and the last wave on the birth of the 2006 Aceh Special Autonomy as a result of the MOU Helsinki conflict resolution signed by the Aceh Free Movement and the Indonesia Government. For sure the new wave of this local political dynamic has been ongoing as the dynamic of asymmetric decentralisation which gives a new space for the politics of bargaining position of the Jakarta national elites.