Word: suhartos
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...parallel between East Timor and Aceh isn't exact. East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, enjoyed a brief period of self-determination before it was invaded and absorbed by Indonesia in 1975. It never really cohered to the country under former President Suharto, who ordered the invasion. Aceh, in contrast?like the rest of post-independence Indonesia?had been part of the former Dutch East Indies, and has since been a major contributor to the national wealth by producing billions of dollars worth of liquefied natural...
East Timor's tragedy was touched off when Suharto successor B.J. Habibie off-ered its people a referendum on whether they wanted to split from Indonesia. They voted yes, but Habibie wasn't in control of his own military. The men in uniform had spent two decades trying to get East Timorese to accept their place within Indonesia, and many felt betrayed. The carnage was their retaliation...
...Since Suharto's fall, however, the movement has deepened its roots across the predominantly ethnic Aceh-nese province of 4.2 million. In many areas the central government's civil administration has all but ceased to function. "The Indonesian government is hardly working in the villages anymore," says Warman, an Acehnese civil servant in Lhokseumawe, who makes no secret of his GAM sympathies. Sitting in a coffee shop with a group of friends, he glances swiftly around before adding: "Here in town, we're still drawing salaries but we hardly go to work anymore. GAM is now far more active...
...Former President Suharto believed in firm central control of the entire, far-flung archipelago. On Jan. 1, new legislation came into effect reversing his legacy. Jakarta controls foreign affairs, monetary policy and external defense, but all other government functions, including taxation, will be handled by locals. The autonomy experiment is less than three months old, and each province is different. Kalimantan, for example, has major problems with migrant communities, which have yet to surface in Sumatra...
...million inhabitants of West Sumatra, this means a return to a traditional system known as nagari (Sanskrit for country). The province's 3,612 villages, as carved up by Suharto, have been merged into 543 nagari areas. Election of nagari officials is already underway and should be completed this year...