Indonesia celebrates its independence on Aug 17, the same month as Malaysia. We share more than a common month of birth; there is history, language, culture, commerce, ancestral ties and more.

Indonesia is our neighbour. A source of both tension and inspiration. Exactly the same things could be said of Aceh.

Merdeka

month is time for much reflection. Reflection on the meaning of a nation. Reflection on the meaning of freedom and independence, merdeka itself.

Reflection on where a people stands in relation to these ideas. These themes have come into dramatic focus with the resumption of the conflict in Aceh on May 19.

More so than the conflicts in the Middle East, Aceh is very close to us, and yet there has hardly been any public response since violent military operations resumed nearly three months ago. There are reasons for this, but no excuses.

The war on Iraq galvanised a response from all levels of Malaysian society, from the grassroots to the government itself. In a phenomenal display of solidarity hundreds of thousands of Malaysians came out in support for the suffering peoples of Iraq.

The call of 'Malaysians for Peace' struck a deep chord in the nation, which showed how seriously we considered freedom, justice, and peace - values which form a central part of our understanding of merdeka .

Principles of merdeka

Without freedom one is but a thing for another's purposes. Such were we under colonialism. Such were the people of what is now Indonesia.

In such a condition no justice is possible. To create and sustain such a condition great violence is required, therefore no peace is possible.

When Malayans cried Merdeka! in 1957, what thundered forth from their throats was a long-suppressed cry that expressed this longing for freedom, justice and peace.

We cannot reduce Merdeka to just being a mere event. To do so would do injustice to the aspirations of those Malaysians who thirsted for the freedom to exercise self-determination. No longer things , but people more in control of their destiny.

Merdeka

is a process rather than an event. If it is not a process then nation-building would be redundant, the event of Merdeka itself would be enough. Clearly, it is not.

It is the state in which a people exercises their collective and individual self-determination. The struggle to realise self-determination is never-ending.

Merdeka

is not an annual carnival procession. Its realisation demands constant attention and sacrifice. It demands our effort to break down the walls that separate us from our fellow Malaysians and humans. Merdeka suffocates and dies in an atmosphere of alienation. Yet it becomes more nourishing than rice when one is starved of it.

Self-determination for a few that is based on the suppression of others is in actual fact oppression. It cannot claim to be liberation in practice, nor can it claim to be emancipatory. It is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a genuine practice of independence and self-determination that does not derive from love.

For these reasons merdeka is built around and through solidarity. It is not built around lone individuals or single ideas but through peoples united in their thousands and millions. It is a collective understanding that unites nations but is able to pass beyond geographical borders.

Decolonisation is an experience that we share in common not just with Indonesia, but with the vast majority of nation-states. Independence and self-determination are understood the world over to include human dignity and freedom from fear.

Solidarity means more than standing in support of another out of some sense of universal abstract humanity. We are not so superhuman as to be able to claim such depth of feeling. To take this position also runs the risk of reducing people to things, humans in abstract, rather than people with histories, hopes and fears, and dreams.

Complex society

Solidarity has meant that we have proceeded from a feeling that terrible suffering is being experienced across the Straits of Malacca, to trying to learn as much as we can about what is happening to Acehnese, including those who are part of our own society.

We have engaged in belated self-education about our neighbours, whose past, present and future are also part of our own.

Aceh is a plural and very complex society with an equally complex history. The plight of its peoples cannot be reduced a fight between two armed groups. It is not a conflict about religion, neither is it simply a struggle for political power between two warring sides.

Aceh participated in the grand struggle for Indonesian merdeka from Dutch colonial rule. They joined the nascent republic with a record of 200 years of struggle against would-be invaders.

However, as the New Order ( Orde Baru ) regime took hold in the republic, Aceh along with many other parts of Indonesia were wronged. Military impunity became a defining symbol of Indonesia.

The wealth of the provinces - natural gas especially in Aceh's case - was channelled into the hands of a few in Jakarta. Meanwhile, people remained in poverty.

What compounded the frustration was that on top of this unequal exchange was an immense violence which made normal life impossible.

With the collapse of the New Order and the restoration of democracy there was hope that peace would return to Aceh. Yet the opposite has happened. Militarisation of Aceh did not decrease but has instead become the full-blown conflict we see today.

Increased militarisation

Militarisation of Indonesia has not decreased, instead the conflict in Aceh represents the efforts of the military to reassert itself as the defining political force in Indonesia.

Only 30 percent of the Indonesian military's budget is drawn from the state. In Aceh, it raises its revenues through mostly illegal business activities. Violence is in fact how it conducts its business.

Unlike in Malaysia, the Indonesian military (Tentera Nasional Indonesia or TNI) is a major force in politics. Its informal influence is as strong as it used to be under Suharto.

Some semblance of normal life resumed in Aceh during the period following the signing of a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) between Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM, or Free Aceh Movement) and the government of Indonesia last December.

However, torture, rapes, killings and abductions went on. Both GAM and TNI continued to exchange fire.

Peace talks were scheduled for May in Tokyo in order to build upon the COHA. However, before the talks were scheduled to begin an estimated 28,000 TNI soldiers were sent into Aceh, boosting the armed forces there to over 40,000. Five GAM negotiators were arrested en route to the talks and accused of trying to flee Aceh.

It is hard to imagine how peace talks could have a chance when conducted under gunpoint and with the negotiators from one side detained by the other. Unsurprisingly, the talks collapsed and an invasion was immediately launched on May 19.

The ordinary people of Aceh are being forced to accept false black and white choices. In order to build mass support, GAM has offered a choice between pro-independence or pro-autonomy (effectively: integration with Indonesia). Equally simplistic, the TNI has concluded that those who do not come out for autonomy must therefore be GAM.

This has created double-bind situation where Acehnese civilians have no security: to choose one position is to be against the other, to choose neither is taken to be against both. Thus, the lines of conflict have blurred over from the armed combatants to make all Acehnese targets of violence.

Over 500 schools have been burnt since May 19. Imagine life in your state if 500 schools were burnt down. Hundreds of markets have been destroyed. Imagine being unable to buy food and provisions, or being unable to conduct your business. Farmers have left their fields untended for fear of arbitrary capture by military patrols.

Imagine having at least one member of your family that has been the victim of torture, disappearance, beatings or extra-judicial execution. Imagine if that was yourself. This is not happening in a faraway country. This is happening right next door to Malaysia.

The mass victimisation of the Acehnese suggests that the military is not interested in winning hearts and minds. For the TNI and their allies the wealth of Aceh does not lie in its people but rather in its natural resources.

Aceh and its people have been reduced to the status of things for others. Freedom, justice and peace are denied to them.

Positive difference

Solidarity not about taking sides, for we have come late into the story, but not too late to make a positive difference. It is clear that for the ordinary people of Aceh an immense amount of freedom has been extinguished.

We do not ask people whether they want independence or autonomy, rather we engage and listen. We let people tell their own stories, their own priorities and ideas about what should be done. Sadly, there has been little space in our media for this.

Through Solidarity for Aceh 's engagement with Acehnese civilians over the last three months, we have learned that for ordinary Acehnese, the priority is not about integration or separation. Rather, it is about ending war and building peace and justice in their everyday lives.

The freedom that ordinary Acehnese ask for is freedom from military violence. The recognition they ask for is of their dignity as human beings.

After decades of armed conflict, ordinary Acehnese want to have a say in their collective future. They want demilitarisation of all groups, including GAM. They want to be engaged in the rebuilding of their society.

Even during conflict, ordinary Acehnese have already shown themselves to be more than capable of developing their society.

In camps for internally displaced villagers, people have mobilised to support each other in health and education, training displaced villagers themselves to take responsibility for camp management and community needs.

In Banda Aceh, students, NGOs and civil society groups have been pro-active in debating, documenting and disseminating information on socio-economic development, peace-building, and rule of law.

These people, committed to a non-violent resolution of the conflict, have had the courage to empower themselves even in a time of war. It is they who should be recognised as the legitimate leaders of their communities. And it is our responsibility to support those who are committed to the same principles upon which we base our own society and freedom.

Solidarity is about breaking down borders. Mental borders. Our understanding of who we are. Malaysia is a country filled with places with names like Kampung Aceh and Lebuh Acheh.

Human decency

Thousands of Acehnese live and work in Malaysia and have done so for centuries. The parents of our most famous entertainer, Tan Sri P Ramlee, came from Aceh. Aceh is not there , but here .

Facing conditions at home which make life impossible, or so dangerous as to be impossible, many Acehnese have become refugees. Many have fled to Malaysia. This is not the first time, but it is perhaps the most urgent.

Thousands of Acehnese refugees are living in our midst in conditions that would shock most Malaysians. No clean water, no adequate shelter. Not enough food and no access to healthcare. Not just in Aceh, but here in our society.

There is an international principle of non-refoulement which holds that persons seeking asylum should not be expelled or returned back to a conflict zone. This principle also holds for those persons who fear torture on their return. This is a principle of international customary law which is binding on all states, including Malaysia.

More than a legal principle it is a basic act of human decency not to send Acehnese back to a place of persecution. We are concerned that Malaysian authorities have not made efforts to firmly respect this principle. There are already reports that Acehnese deported from Malaysia have shown up as corpses across the straits.

It will be difficult to celebrate Merdeka this month, let alone affirm the idea of 'Malaysians for Peace', if Malaysia is sending victims of war back to their doom.

Peace in Aceh

Peace will not come to Aceh by way of war. A new peace process needs to begin. There must be a tripartite peace dialogue involving Acehnese civil society, GAM and the government of Indonesia.

Bearing arms must not be the passport to the peace table. We must recognise civil society's role in holding Acehnese society together in the face of forces which are tearing it apart. Demilitarisation must be undertaken by all armed parties and conducted in good faith.

What is at stake in Aceh is not just the fate of the Acehnese people but of Indonesia itself. After 58 years of independence, Indonesia deserves our support in its continued struggle for democracy, but reform has been slow in coming. It deserves our support in resisting the re-creation of Orde Baru .

So even as we wish Indonesians Salam Merdeka , let us remember that the self-determination of nations is but one means towards the self-determination of peoples. One without the other is hollow and meaningless.

In Aceh, the celebration of Aug 17 was enforced with the threat of arrest or death if Acehnese failed to fly the Indonesian flag on their car, motorbike or house.

This is neither a condition of human dignity nor freedom from fear. It is merdeka as enforced ritual instead of a state of being.

We appeal to fellow-Malaysians to affirm the merdeka spirit through solidarity with each other as well as with the all peoples of Indonesia, especially the Acehnese who so urgently need our help.

Salam Merdeka.

YIN SHAO LOONG and LILIANNE FAN are volunteers with Solidarity for Aceh , a non-partisan coalition of concerned citizens committed to peace, justice, and human development. It sees the situation in Aceh as a test of regional commitments to these principles.