ABSTRACT
Law No.11 of 2006 on the Governing of Aceh (LoGA) was ratified by the DPR on 11 July, 2006 amidst intense controversy. Although the law was endorsed by the national parliament and conferred unprecedented powers of self-governance to the Acehnese, it drew protests in Aceh. On the day the LoGA was passed, GAM, SIRA and dozens of Acehnese NGOs organized a one-day general strike in condemnation of the legislation, which excluded or diluted several core provisions in the Helsinki MoU. In Jakarta, despite the DPR’s promotion of the LoGA as the key to ensuring peace in Aceh, malcontents in Indonesia’s political and military establishment also viewed the concept of self-government with suspicion and expressed concerns that the Acehnese had been awarded too many concessions.
