Narit Geutanyo

Pephon Narit

In Aceh now whatever initiatives taken by the Achenese have succeeded, that it is only when bureaucracy intervenes that it breaks down. The Achenese capacity to help themselves is great. It is this capacity that has got to be assisted. Therefore bureaucracy has got to get out of the way. In my opinion, it is wrong to put the governor as the deputy to the head of BRR. It is always the elected representative who is answerable to the people who should head the organization, and the civil servant should be the deputy. In this country we have the cooperative movement. And our cooperatives have never succeeded. Thousands of cooperatives failed because people who are voted to head the cooperatives are also people who manage the cooperatives. People who were voted were normally popular people, but popular people were not necessarily serious people. And therefore they couldn’t manage the cooperatives.

So we changed the law. We have to have people who are voted into the head but we make sure that the running of the organization is in the hand of the civil servants. In that way we don’t surrender the management to the elected representative but we do make the head or elected body to oversee the development to ensure that he can answer to the people. There will be continuous problems in Aceh if this is not sorted out because the public wants to punish a leader who hasn’t performed or who does wrong but they cannot punish the civil servant. But they can punish the elected representative during the next election. Therefore I suggest that we reduce the position of the executive of the present to be the assistant to the newly elected governor. Whether the newly elected governor is really knowledgeable in management or not, there is always the backup from the civil service. In this way the Achenese will be at peace because then they know that their elected representative can be removed if he doesn’t perform.

For democracy to survive, Matsushita says that democracy in a developing country cannot survive if it does not have 2 characteristics, namely sushi and sunam. Sushi means the recognition of the victory of even by one vote as if all the votes have gone to the winner. And the loser must not think that he lost by only one vote but he should regard his loss by having lost all the votes. Then we will not have people going around counting the wins and losses and prolonging the debate, and as a result will not stop talking and start working. Sunam is the ability of a man to see goodness in the people he hates or dislikes or even his enemy.

The Aceh people must now unite. The Achenese must decide to unite. In order to unite, firstly, there must be a decision and a will to unite. Secondly, we must go through common experiences, and finally, we must go through common suffering. And in this I think that we need good literature written so that the Achenese would not forget the experiences that they have gone through.

In education, we have now to make sure Aceh devises an educational system that guarantees a future for Aceh. In the reconstruction report which comes to thousands of pages, I see only about 6 lines on education. In other words the present development

the present development plan for Aceh does not put emphasis on education at all. It is most unfortunate. But education is what Aceh is interested in. Education in science, education in English, education in mathematics etc., must be brought to Aceh if Aceh is to be a model of a devastated nation coming back to prominence, iaitu lahir semula dari bara.

When Dr. Mahathir wanted to launch the Look East policy, we looked at many nations in the world. We classified the world into 5 groups, namely, the English-speaking democracy, like Canada, the US, Malaysia, and India; the communist world, like East Germany, Poland, North Korea, Russia, China; the Muslim world, that does not read at all but has a lot of money and used it to buy weapons to shoot each other; and the Catholics of Latin America that have no money but never stop spending. While all these country were facing deficits, there was one group of countries that was enjoying surpluses and that was the non-English speaking democracy. France, Germany, Korea, Japan and Taiwan were all prospering when others were having problems.

Latin America that have no money but never stop spending. While all these country were facing deficits, there was one group of countries that was enjoying surpluses and that was the non-English speaking democracy. France, Germany, Korea, Japan and Taiwan were all prospering when others were having problems.

We then zeroed in to their secrets of success and found that it was Pride for France, Will for Germany, the Bushido spirit for Japan, the Hwarang spirit for Korea, and the Gin Seng spirit for Taiwan. The Bushido spirit consists of Trustworthiness (amanah), Courage, Discipline, Diligence, and loyalty. These are the traits that the Japanese had submitted themselves to. The Hwarang spirit is composed of Trusworthiness (amanah), Courage, Discipline, Diligence, and loyalty, the same as the Japanese spirit.

Hwarang spirit is composed of Trusworthiness (amanah), Courage, Discipline, Diligence, and loyalty, the same as the Japanese spirit. These values that we call Trusworthiness (amanah), Courage, Discipline, Diligence, and loyalty, are also Islamic values.

If anybody wants to develop Aceh, and think that there is a Harvard formula, or a Cornell formula, or a Cambridge formula, or an Oxford formula to solve the problems of Aceh and ignore the idiosyncrasies of the Aceh people, you are going to see blood everywhere, You have to understand the Achenese culture, just like Tun Razak tried to understand the Malay culture and tried to implement development the best he could. Nobody should come from all over the world and implant their ideas in Aceh. All these efforts would not benefit the people. Aceh should consider people-based agriculture and industry instead of product-based agriculture and industry.

The problems that you are facing whether it is corruption, etc. are because of money. We treat money as something that is there but we do not study the character of money. Let me put to you a suggestion. Let us revise all salaries of civil servants in Aceh. Make sure that all teachers have enough salary to live as teachers and to do just teaching. They don’t have to sell vegetables to support their families. If you are a district officer, you don’t have to do any business because your salary is already there. So the question is how do we this, because we can’t devise for Aceh what we can’t revise for Indonesia. And Indonesia has a system whereby the salaries are never enough. People working in foreign companies are relaxed and do not have to have other jobs. If you are not linked to foreign companies or NGOs you must look for other sources of income; and do you blame anybody when there is corruption in these circumstances?

We have to revise the Aceh salary scheme. But I cannot speak for Indonesia or for Aceh, I can only suggest. We must keep discussing the idea until the idea is popular and the time for it has come. As Victor Hugo says: there is no army on earth, however big, that can withstand the advance of an idea whose time has come. What is the idea? The idea is that all government officers must get enough salary to support themselves without looking for another job.

What do we do now in Aceh? We cannot wait for this to happen. What can we do now in Aceh? Very simple. You have heard that US$300 million has been spent. Where is the money? The money is in the form of pieces of paper. Where are the pieces of paper? They are in the banks. And what do the banks do with the pieces of paper? The banks will keep the pieces of paper as backup for the loans that they give to people. But do they give loans to the Achenese? Can the Achenese businessmen borrow? The can’t. So the money is now for the benefit of businessmen from Jakarta or Medan. If the banks in Aceh do not know who to loan the money to they will then remit the money to Jakarta. Due to the outflow of money Aceh is now suffering from monetary suffocation. This is a new term, my recent invention. Aceh is suffocated. The American came and said that they have spent US$900 million in Aceh but where is the money now? It is in New York or Washington. And the Achenese are hearing that they are getting a lot of money but where is the money? If you want Aceh to prosper you must retain the money in Aceh. How do you do that? Very simple. You appoint me as an advisor, we can do it very quickly. What you should do is this: get an estimate of the minimum income needed to survive in Aceh, say for a teacher. The amount may be about 2.5 million rupiah. The Indonesian government currently pays about 1 million rupiah. Where do you get the other 1.5 million rupiah? The Indonesian government cannot pay this and it would upset the whole Indonesian economy if it does. For the 1.5 million rupiah, we pay by introducing the Aceh dinar, an Aceh currency. If you are afraid to call it Aceh currency, call it Aceh coupon. This currency or coupon has no validity outside Aceh.

The strength of this currency is in the government’s money or oil concessions that are kept in the bank and the issuance of the Aceh currency backed by this money. For example if you put the US$300 million that have been spent into the Aceh bank and introduce the Aceh dinar worth US$300 million, that Aceh dinar would not move out of Aceh. So the Aceh farmers, fishermen, shopkeepers, and supermarkets would be trading in Aceh dinar to trade in local products and goods. Foreign products will be bought by government agencies and these agencies will focus on capital goods for the development of Aceh.

These ideas are revolutionary but if thought out seriously I think we will eventually be successful.

Petikan Ucapan Tan Sri Sanusi Junid di Persidangan Antarabangsa Pembanginan Aceh di UKM Pada 26-27 Disember, 2006.

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