Verandah of Violence: The Background to the Aceh Problem

By Anthony Reid

Book Overview

In Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh, the democratization process that began in Indonesia in 1998 encouraged the overt expression of regionalist sentiment and resentment of the military. The surprising extent of both feelings made Aceh, home to a long-standing independence movement, the next potential candidate after East Timor to break away from Indonesia, and led to harsh repressive measures by the military.

The tsunami of December 2004 brought incalculable destruction and loss to Aceh. At the same time, it brought international sympathy and aid on an unprecedented scale, along with new pressures for peace. In August 2005, Indonesia and Aceh signed a peace agreement designed to put an end to the conflict.

This book offers a guide to the complexities of modern Aceh, a land dubbed "The Verandah of Mecca," as it moves toward peace and reconstruction. With balanced coverage by leading authorities, historians, political scientists, and journalists, Verandah of Violence probes the underlying causes of the conflict that has pitted Aceh against Jakarta, explaining why the Acehnese entered the Indonesian republic in 1945 with an unparalleled determination to resist outside domination, and how these attitudes have shaped Aceh's relations with the Indonesian state.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0295986336
• ISBN13: 9780295986333
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 423 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

historical perspective of an ongoing struggle

Why has Aceh been a constant source of unrest in Indonesia? Reid has collected a series of papers by various authors on this problem. We see the history of Aceh, and how it kept a distinct identity under Dutch colonialism and later under Javanese rule. In part due to a slightly different strand of Islam. But also a regionalism that may have been in part a reaction against the numerical dominance of Java. To some readers, think perhaps of Scotland vis-a-vis England. The book describes different ideas within Aceh's activists. Some want full independence from Indonesia, which to them is tantamount to Java. Others prefer greater regional rights within a federal Indonesia. The reaction of the Indonesian military to both has been suppression. There is an interesting parallel between Aceh and East Timor. In the latter, the people were mostly Christian. While Aceh is Muslim. But the predominantly Muslim military used many of the same methods of suppression against both regions. The military saw its primary duty as holding a disparate nation together, by whatever means necessary.