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Brian Hawes
Professor Alidadi
Global Legal Traditions
10/29/2019
Indonesia’s Fight for Secularism
Deeply rooted in Indonesia’s history has been a long-fought battle and dispute all
revolving around the Ache province located on the island of Sumatra, and their fight for
independence. Mainly a secular nation Indonesia could be described as vertically divided,
meaning that there is a division within the law itself. In practice, Indonesia adopted the Dutch
model of civil codes for civil and commercial law, however incorporated Islamic law with
regards to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and religious endowments. As a result of the thirty-
year war between the Ache resistance and the Indonesian government, as well as a devastating
tsunami that destroyed the entire country, the Ache province finally gained self-autonomy from
Indonesia. This ultimately allowed for Aceh to enact Sharia Law as the law of the land and
separate themselves from the rest of the country. Thus, Aceh’s adoption of Sharia Law severely
jeopardizes Indonesia’s long-standing position of secularism, which would evidently cause
substantial religious and legal disputes throughout Indonesia.
Indonesia experienced a thirty-year war with the Aceh province, as Aceh attempted to
gain their independence from the Indonesian government. The resistance was led by the Free
Aceh Movement, and by 2002 the resistance was able to secure almost seventy percent of Aceh’s
coastline. It was then in 2001, that the Indonesian legislature enacted Law No.18 which granted
Aceh special autonomy from the Republic of Indonesia. For example, The Humans Rights watch
stated that “it permitted Aceh to implement Sharia as a formal legal system, establish a Sharia
court system, and articulate rules in the form of regulations, known in Aceh as Qanuns” (HRW
12). It was not until 2004 that peace talks began between the two opposing sides, as these talks
arose due to the massive natural disaster that decimated Indonesia. In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude
earthquake shook the Indian ocean and sent one of the deadliest tsunamis in history barreling
toward Indonesia. The Boxing Day tsunami caused over one hundred and sixty thousand
casualties in Indonesia, the most in any of the affected countries (Borrero 2). This was in part, a
major reason for start of peace negotiations, as both armies were unable to continue fighting, the
entire nation was destroyed, as well as massive international support and influence to make
peace. Ultimately, on August 15th, 2005 a peace agreement was signed, which officially ended
the thirty-year war between the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government.
With the passing of Law No.18, the Aceh province was free to enforce Sharia Law, and
therefore began to enact a series of Qanun’s. A Qanun is a term derived from Arabic that is used
