froginmythroat (FIMT)

The take-off and landing prayers to Allah must have worked because I have arrived safely in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) province. Originally home to 322,000 people, the northern part of the city was completely wiped out by the tsunami. Over 200, 000 people in NAD were left dead or missing. That’s more than 50 times the number of those who perished in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Until recently Aceh province was mired in conflict between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the central Indonesian government, but earlier this year martial law was lifted and civilian rule returned, then in mid-August a peace agreement was signed by both sides.

Banda Aceh City

The wake of the tsunami has brought with it the largest reconstruction effort from a natural disaster since Lake Taupo exploded in 200AD, sending pumice flying all over New Zealand and darkening the skies over China and the Roman Empire. For a province which had seen little aid and few foreigners because of ongoing conflict, the vast inflow of both combined which the new scarcity of basic goods has boosted demand and pushed inflation as high as 17% whilst the rest of Indonesia is at about 7%. Houses are being rented by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international organisations (IOs) for prices similar to that in parts of Auckland. The tsunami has had the effect of, among other things, totally restructuring economic society. Those whose businesses, houses, and other assets were in the south of the city survived the tsunami and are now benefiting from higher house prices, rents, and reconstruction purchases, whilst those in the north and along the coast may have lost everything except themselves and what they had on them at the time.

Banda Aceh Countryside

The organisation I am working for has been on the ground for about a month, and only established a house in the last week or two. The house is both my home and office and I share it with one other colleague and visitors from the US mother organisation when they come from time to time. We have a cook that makes us three meals a day, so between eating, working, and sleeping there is no need to leave the house. The district we are in was not affected by the tsunami although there are a few damaged buildings from the earthquakes. My colleague, Habib, is from Bangladesh and he knows more about the New Zealand cricket team and whether they are or aren’t or have been to Zimbabwe than me. We don’t get any English TV channels, so at night we watch the Bangladeshi news service which, much like Cambodian and Burmese news, is basically a PR outlet for the government showing endless amounts of boring footage of government meetings and great works being done for the people. We also get screeds of Chinese provincial channels and the odd Bollywood music video channel in 70% Hindi, 30% English.

BA ‘burbs

The Acehenese are very relaxed and friendly, much like the Cambodians. It is a short walk from our house to the main road and along the way there are numerous calls from people in houses or even passing on motorbikes of “Hello Mister�, “What is your name?�, or “bule� (westerner). It remains to be seen whether this laid-back attitude is a double-edged sword that will carry over into the workplace. Once reaching the road the visual and aural stream of motorbikes, cars and trucks, and horns sounded is intense. Are they beeping at me or is it just the traffic? I’m never quite sure when I look across at someone honking the horn and they are grinning back.

Banda Aceh River

Whilst conversationally approachable, the Acehenese are far from laissez-faire morally. The province has a somewhat autonomous status, granted by a 2002 special autonomy law, which among other things allows local government to implement Islamic (sharia) law. Hence alcohol is not as openly available as elsewhere in Indonesia. Being the most devoutly Muslim province, the head scarf (jilbab) is worn by 95% of Acehnese women, in contrast to Jakarta where the head scarf is the exception rather than the rule. My female colleagues find it strange to see a Western woman with uncovered shoulders and arms. Television programmes showing kissing and other such heathen acts are banned. Nearby our house an unmarried female and male doctor from Java were sharing a house together as they were both from the same organisation. After a few months the word got around and they were visited by a group of about 5 men in the middle of the night. The doctors let them in thinking it was a patient, only to be denounced and threatened by the group who were not happy that an unmarried couple were living together. The same group then went to another house in the neighbourhood where an organisation consisting of a large group of men and a Norwegian woman were working and living. Again they made similar threats, including complaints that the woman was a smoker.

However it would seem that not everyone shares such strong moral overtones. I have heard more than once the comment, from non-Acehenese and Acehenese Indonesians alike, that when Acehenese women leave Aceh some remove their jilbabs. ‘Acehenese don’t really feel religious in their hearts’ it is said. Is this a case of a state religious authority which acts as official legitimation for a moral creed espoused to otherwise ambivalent citizens? Can such a state of affairs continue to exist as Aceh opens up to the world? As the number of ads showing women flicking their smooth as silk hair across their shoulders increases, will the number of women wearing jilbabs decrease? Will other outward forms of religious identification still exist in 10 years time? Will pesky foreigners stop asking questions about other people’s societies?