Back to Aceh -- Where is Everybody?

Well, not a good start back to the office. I traveled on Thursday, as I was told to be in Banda Aceh to be standing by as the Governor would be meeting with the Minister of Religious Affairs. Apparently the meeting was set up a long time ago, but the focus would now no doubt be on the new "jeniyah" qanun, which a few out of touch old men decided should require that adulterers should be stoned to death. We needed to be standing by in case my client, the Head of the Legal Affairs Bureau, needed our assistance.

Friday I showed up at the office, even had a tie with me, and was alone. All day. Only me, a driver and a guard. No meeting, no answer to my SMS, nobody to talk to. For this I came back early????

If anyone's interested in my view of the Qanun, or Local Regulation, I can confirm that it sucks, although I haven't been able to read it yet. Unfortunately, the LoGA (Law on Governance of Aceh) allows the legislature to pass laws with or without the approval of the executive, similar to the power the central legislature grabbed for itself in a moment when supporters of democracy were apparently asleep. There are lots of ways a qanun can be made ineffective, however. The best would be for the incoming legislature to remove the stoning provision, and ideally the other barbaric, stone age bits, from the regulation. The central government has the authority to throw the whole thing out. Similarly, the regulation can be challenged at the Supreme Court, and of course someone could appeal once convicted and sentenced. I think this one has a short life, but I've been wrong before. It's obviously difficult, for reasons I really can't understand, for politicians to appear less religious than their peers. And by religious, of course, I mean slavishly following the letter of religious doctrine while thoroughly ignoring its intent. Does anyone believe there's an honest member of the central DPR, for example? Yet these old men and few women strut and fret their hour upon stage, proclaiming to be protectors of the public's morals. One wishes they were capable of feeling shame.