Mulyagusdin

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The 2017 Regional Head Election, along with the back-and-forth over passing Aceh's 2017 Regional Budget (APBA), has absorbed a huge amount of energy, even though we're still only at the start of the year. The people of Aceh are working hard to carefully understand the work programs of the six gubernatorial candidates, while at the same time watching the Acting Governor's risky “maneuver” to push the APBA through via a Governor's Regulation instead. Two big things need the Acehnese public's extra attention to make sure 2017 turns out to be a good year for Aceh going forward, at least for the next one to five years.

Aceh, known for the wealth of its culture, customs, and natural resources, obviously needs certainty in sustainable development across human resources, infrastructure, and energy. These three things should be the Acehnese people's main focus. A stronger Aceh, able to manage its own affairs, becomes a benefit once again to the other regions within the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, just as President Sukarno's affectionate nickname for it once put it: the Capital Region.

Just a small note, purely as a lesson in budget politics. Everyone in Aceh should know that what's actually being fought over, both by these candidates and in the fierce tug-of-war between the DPRA and the Acting Governor, is simply the numbers written down in the APBA. That's it. Take the Jakarta gubernatorial election (Pilkada DKI) as an example, which turned into a nationwide uproar reaching every corner of Indonesia, all because of the power to manage an enormous amount of Rupiah. In this view, development is represented only by figures. It's just reading budget line items and their values, then executed either “in good faith” or with money “leaking” here and there by the various regional agencies (SKPD/SKPA). This is the real lust at the heart of politics.

Alright, there's something more important to discuss. Back to how Aceh should be looking ahead. Aceh moving slowly, firmly, and surely toward development with social justice for all its people.

Of course, the 2017 Aceh gubernatorial candidates, along with the DPRA members and the Acting Governor of Aceh, mustn't see budget figures as just words on sheets of paper. They have to see far beyond all of that. They need to put on the people's clothes, so to speak, even borrow the “body and mind of the people,” in order to know what's actually needed and what should be done. The people of Aceh will surely choose the Governor who thinks and works this way.

Remember, not a leader who's only looking for free time in Aceh. Not a leader who's already prepared a future home outside Aceh. Not a leader who merely shows off academic degrees, piety, or experience that, in truth, has no bearing on the ability to manage Aceh's culture, customs, and natural wealth.

Human Resources; Essential. The starting point of any regional development is the strength of the labor and thinking that the local people themselves have. Let's remember that a region, especially one in poor economic condition, is not a company. It can't just recruit outside (foreign) labor, whether skilled (thinkers) or manual (workers), as easily as that. Because if it does, there will be leakage in the economic impact we're hoping for.

Strengthen the human element already in Aceh: their faith, their health, their knowledge, and their skills. Build human resources who actually live in Aceh, who pay their taxes in Aceh, whose lives are directly tied to primary-sector economic activity, and who are willing to buy more of the products and services Aceh itself produces.

This isn't easy work. Writing about it is certainly easier than actually doing it. But if we never start thinking through the strategy, it will never get done, and Aceh will keep being “violated.” Remember, Aceh has an open culture, its custom of “peumulia jamee”, and its natural wealth is still vast and largely untouched. This isn't about separating Acehnese residents from non-Acehnese ones, given that the region has always been inhabited and shared by many different ethnicities and religions; it's about making sure money doesn't flow out instead of staying within. This is a lesson easily found in development-economics material on The Early Stage of Industrial Development. South Korea and Taiwan applied this firmly back in the 1960s. We often forget this. Aceh's next Governor mustn't forget it. It has to strengthen Aceh's human resources: people who actually live and shop in Aceh's own markets. One important indicator. Note it.

Infrastructure and Facilities; A Must. Roads, bridges, ports, airports, markets, sanitation, railways, and all the infrastructure that supports farming, fishing, and plantation activity. The infrastructure supporting the work of finding, gathering, moving, and marketing produce from land and sea has to be good quality and adequate. That requires government intervention, and of course it has to be a clean, transparent government. If the government is “dirty” and likes to play “dirty tricks,” that doesn't just burn through the central government's budget to catch and detain the people involved, it also harms the public because of the resulting poor quality of infrastructure.

Government intervention, perhaps in partnership with investors, will open a wide path to prepare for the take-off phase and market externalization. Burdensome regulations that serve no real purpose need to be cut, or even scrapped altogether where appropriate, while still paying attention to what's genuinely urgent. This includes local banking, such as Bank Aceh.

Local banks have handed out enough large consumer credit to government officials just because their risk management guidelines told them to. Push, even force, the tie-wearing staff with solid management skills (understandable, since they're bank employees) to actually get out into the field. To accompany local business owners, to support young entrepreneur talent, people willing to sacrifice, skip the neat clothes, roll up their sleeves, and get by on too little sleep, to make sure Aceh keeps producing capable business people and traders for the future. The same spirit that once made it great. These are the people working micro, small, and medium enterprises. They are heroes.

Right. Roads, bridges, ports, airports, markets, sanitation, railways, and all the infrastructure being built need to be usable, put to work by Aceh's own business owners. Farmers, fishers, plantation operators. Which will, in time, drive the success of other service and production businesses across Aceh. Why? Because rural purchasing power is strong. Not strong because of loans from loan sharks that force people to lose the land they depend on for a living, but strong because what they earn from the sea and the land has actually raised their income per capita. Wait, by “business owners” I don't mean middle traders, not middlemen. And definitely not project brokers. Note it.

Energy; A Requirement. While we search for and build environmentally friendly power plants, that doesn't mean Aceh doesn't need energy at all. Especially not while letting the quality of PLN's service in Aceh keep drawing sharp criticism. Daily blackouts shouldn't be happening anymore. In case we forget, remember that Indonesia has been independent for 71 years now, and back in Indonesia's difficult early years of independence, Aceh bought an airplane and, as the story goes, even donated gold for the Monas monument, to show the world that Indonesia deserved to be called a nation.

Now, when it comes to supplying energy to homes, so the next generation can keep studying in the light while their parents get their work gear ready for the next day, Aceh is no longer able to.

Don't talk about handing out cash per household, don't promise free Hajj trips for the people, don't “cet langet” and buy a yacht. Instead, do the advocacy, the coordination, the lobbying, and use the public's money that's under your management to secure a better future, meaning energy and its grid. Renewable energy above all.

This would energize a lot of things. Investment and industry would breathe easier, and start seeing Aceh as a place worth visiting, then settling in. Energy availability is a non-negotiable requirement. Note it.

So, Aceh, look ahead. Hold your children's hands tightly. Keep moving forward. Aceh will be great again.

Closing note. This isn't a conclusion. This isn't a breakdown of vision-mission-program platforms. Of the six gubernatorial candidates capable of restoring Aceh's greatness, only two so far seem to have thought through what's written above. And given how drawn-out the debate over passing the 2017 APBA has been, passing it through the Qanun Stipulation mechanism is the better option.

Aceh lon, Aceh Gata, Aceh Indonesia, Aceh ban Sigom Donya!

Source: LinkedIn Article