The ongoing debate on the subject is linked with power struggle and the structure of Indonesian judiciary it is also influenced by the way Acehnese perceive sharia and conceive the identity of their province. The population of the province (four and a half million in 2010) is divided about the principle and the mode of implementation of sharia. The sharing of judicial jurisdictions between the province and the central government makes the process complex. Sharia is not a code that could be adopted once and for all to replace the whole of Indonesian law. Later on, the leaders of GAM, who were not a priori in favour of the implementation of sharia, were elected at the head of the province.ĤSince that time the definition, organisation and enforcing of sharia has been very slow and problematic. The tsunami also contributed to speed up the negociations between the Indonesian government and the separatist movement (GAM, Movement for Aceh’s Independence), which led to the Helsinki Agreement of August 2005. The granting of sharia, in 1998, was not a response to any special pressure of the moment it was conceived as a gesture to smooth the relationship between the central government and the province.ģThe 2004 tsunami caused not only casualties and material damage of considerable proportions, but also a social trauma, one consequence of which was a surge for greater religious rigour. At the same time, Aceh province, newly baptised Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (henceforth, Aceh) was granted a status of special autonomy (as already enjoyed by Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Papua) which confered it a greater autonomy than enjoyed by the other provinces. These included the independence of Timor Leste, a regional decentralisation process and the decision to grant sharia to Aceh. Habibie, which occurred unexpectedly (as a result of the fall of Soeharto’s governement, in May 1998) and lasted only a year (1998-1999), provoked reforms of disproportionate dimensions. The decision to authorize that province alone to enforce sharia is the fruit of recent unpredictable events. Aceh province, reputed to be particularly rigorous in terms of religion and which has shown strong separatist tendencies for a long time, raised that issue with a special virulence. 2 The following outline is based on the following sources: the books by Feener (2013), Afrianty (2015 (.)ġThe implementation of Islamic law (sharia) in Indonesia is an issue that has raised numerous controversies since independence, as the decision had been taken not to inscribe Islam as the religion of the state as early as 1950.
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