Having been reading the history of Umar bin Abdul Aziz from various sources and books, I suggest Irwandi-Nazar not to be another ”Indonesian Governors”, which means imitating policies and style of today’s and previous governors in most part of Indonesia.

 

            ONE of ‘our’ government officers, once in a Nuzulul Qur’an celebration in 1998 when I was still working as a journalist, was giving a speech. There, he was hoping religious devotion to be improved; children should learn the Qur’an better and other cliché expectations. By the end of his speech, he said: “Too bad this year’s Nuzulul Qur’an celebration happens to be in Ramadhan, when we all fasting. Otherwise, we could serve you some snacks”. The audiences who were listening were stunned, given that the Nuzulul Qur’an is always celebrated on the 17^th of Ramadhan. Some laughed and some others make fun of the officer’s tiny religious knowledge. 

With the minute religious understanding, how would we expect the officer to perform economic reformation, to raise people’s welfare through alms/charity management and wealth distribution (instead of debt), or to eradicate corruption and other viciousness deeds from officers of this very country?

We have chosen and inaugurated Irwandi Yusuf and Muhammad Nazar  on   8 February  2007, as the new Governor and Vice Governor of Aceh. Numbers of Regent/Vice Regent and Mayor/Vice Mayor have also been elected by Acehnese in each region; they all to be inaugurated by the new Governor in the near future. We, as the people who have chosen them, certainly have masses of hopes, expectation to be exact, that they will not follow the vicious track of other former ‘Indonesian governors’ or leaders.

Nevertheless, who is Irwandi-Nazar’s leadership idol, whose way ideally to be followed in leading us in the future? Is it Hasan Tiro, the GAM leader in exile? Or Mohammad Hatta, the well-respected founding father of Indonesia? Or Tengku Daud Beureueh, the charismatic Aceh early leader? Or simply copying the style of other officers and ‘Indonesian Governors’?

If they haven’t got any, since nowadays it is not easy to find one, I suggest one name:  Umar bin Abdul Aziz (682-720). He was the 8^th Caliph of Umayyah Dinasty (715-717). Only two years did he stay on his throne as he was then die young. However, for his justice, honesty, and wisdom, Umar bin Abdul Aziz will always be alive among Muslims and anybody who studied his life.

He was successfully reformed the country’s economy to the point that it was hard to find poor people to whom the alms to be given. This was one of the prosperity indicators. That time, the alms were piled in mosques or the Bait ul Maal (community “house of wealth”). The Umayyah Dynasty that was full of corruption, collusion and nepotism, tyrannous and ruthless, drastically changed as Umar bin Abdul Aziz took over the governance.

            It is not impossible to rewind the history if we have the will to do so. It doesn’t have to be always because of the ‘if-the-requirement-and-situation-is-fulfilled’ factor. 

Umar bin Abdul Aziz had never done a veterinary masters degree in the US. He was also not an economic expert. Indeed, he was never trained at the State Governance Higher Education (STPDN) to be a pamong praja (the Indonesian-style goverment officer). Umar was only a 37 years old who happen to have patrician blood, who had also studied and had high comprehension on Islamic law and knowledge.

            The fact initially had caused him to have less confident when he was asked to lead his country. When he was finally accepting the throne, he told an Ulama, Al-Zuhri; “I am dreadfully afraid of the hell”. Series of heroism stories were then told, starting from his fear to the God.

 

Starting from self-changing

First step: to change himself from a member of the royal family to an ordinary person. He donated all means and money given by the kingdom (that was certainly come from taxes taken from the people) to the Country’s desk, including his luxurious clothes. He also refused to stay at the palace; instead he chose to stay at his own house.

Second step: to change his inner family. He offered two choices to his wife: “Give back all your jewelries, or we will divorce”. His wife, Fatimah Binti Abdul Malik, chose to follow him in performing the reformation. At first, his children complained. However Umar offered them also two choices: "I will provide you fine and delicious food, as well as lavishness, but you will throw me to hell. Or you all be patient with this humbleness and we all go into the heaven, with God’s will .”

            Next, as the third step, Umar moved out of and reformed the palace. He ordered to sell all luxurious belongings in the palace and put back the money to the country’s treasury. Royal families in the palace did not agree with him and demonstrate their protests, yet Umar kept his consistency.

Modesty and idealness are some keys in eradicating collusion, corruption and nepotism, the main ones are religious devotion and strictness. We all know them, however they are very hard to apprehend.

If Irwandi-Nazar could ride on a Toyota Kijang, for instance, why should be indebted -on behalf of people- to buy a Toyota Fortuner, Hilux, or Nissan Terrano? If they could still see the time -in order to be on time- with an IDR 100,000 ($12) wristwatch, why bother buying Swiss-made watch that cost up to IDR 5 million?

 

Cut back bureaucracy

The self, family and palace cleaning, was proven to ensure the public on strength of Umar’s political will in committing the complete reformation. He ordered a total thrift in governing his country which was hit by a severe economic crisis. This step is relatively easier than the first one as Umar himself had shown his credibility by doing it in advance. 

One day, the Governor of Medina sent a letter to Umar Bin Abdul Aziz, asking for additional letter head for some population administration needs. Umar then turned the latter around (for economical reason) and wrote in replying the request: “Moslems don’t have to spend their means for unnecessary things, just like the letter head you have asked. We do not need many letter heads”.               

He strictly restructured the country organization, cut back bureaucracy and simplified administration system. It is because principally the improvidence in country’s management resulted from the packed governance structure, long bureaucracy and complicated administration. 
          It is not surprising that Indonesia needs many civil servants. Even though some of them have no work to do; come in late and go home early, the government still feels that they need to recruit more and more civil servant.
 

The spirit of refusing poverty

Since the early time of his leadership, Umar bin Abdul Aziz had started empowering business among his people. By doing so, he enlarged the country’s revenue sources through alms, taxes and jizyah (non-Moslem tax).

He encouraged his people to refuse poverty, also at the same time growing the spirit of rejecting lavishness. Moslems were reminded to do their obligation to pay the alms, as it is nobler than being alms recipients. If they stay poor, how could they pay their alms?

As the economic growth eventually then quickly shifting, the number of alms payer was increasing; contradictory, the number of alms recipients was decreased. In fact, by the late second year of his leadership, people who are categorized as alms recipients were hard to be found. The Amil (alms collector and distributor) had to travel to deep villages to distribute the alms, however most refused as their situation had changed; they no longer categorized as one of the alms recipient. The result was the country experienced surplus.

After fulfilling people’s basic needs such as education and health, redistribution of the country’s means were then directed to subsidy payments of private debts, and other payment that logically excluded from the state’s expenditure. Wedding expense is one of the examples. One day, when the country had extended surplus, they announced “The country will pay all wedding expenses for those who are willing to marry young”. This trend was then successfully done in this century by Iranian President: Ahmadinejad. Mahatir Muhammad in Malaysia follows by giving mild housing credit for young couples in the neighboring country. 

 

No tolerance toward proponents.

From the law point of view, Umar bin Abdul Aziz also did not tolerate his proponents. Relatives, cousins, family also former officers –including military- who were proven guilty of tyrannical action when they were ordering the country, were punished.  The form of punishment is either physical penalty or paying fine to the person to whom the crime was done. The ones who still on their function were renounce from their position on the government after fulfilling their punishment.

He sent out circular letter forbidding governor or other bureaucracy officers to be involved in business. According to Umar, it would trigger monopoly, either directly by the governor and his associate or by his side-kicks. Instead, he upgraded salary of governors and regional officers up to 300 dinar; which was quite high for that period. By doing so, he hoped they would be honest, instead of pretending to be honest, therefore avoiding corruption practices and betraying the people.

Having been reading the history of Umar bin Abdul Aziz from many sources and books, I suggest Irwandi-Nazar not to be another ”Indonesian Governors”, which means imitating policies and style of today’s and previous governors in most part of Indonesia.

However, if later in the future Irwandi-Nazar are obligated to follow the red-white-flag ceremony everyday at the Meuligoe (governor’s office), as well as to sing the Indonesian national anthem, just as other ‘Indonesian governors’; I refuse wasting energy to discuss the matter. There are still many other things to criticize, which need our attention. 

Obviously, Irwandi-Nazar is challenged to be different from other Indonesian governors; mainly in policy making and strictness. It’s time to stop being afraid of anything and anybody except Allah SWT; given that there are many temptations both inside and outside the Meuligoe; either from the real devil or devil in human form.

Those who help buying hand-phone voucher for Irwandi or Nazar when they were in detention, or close friends who once tried to collect money to bribe the judge who put sentence to Irwandi in 2004; supposedly not to interfere Irwandi-Nazar policy making moves. Rudely speaking: there should be no ‘project allocation’ for them. 

Remember the first speech made by Umar bin Abdul Aziz when he was inaugurated: “For God, I will not be giving anything to anyone in evil way for I will not be debarring anybody from his rights. I would only put things where it belongs, as my religion orders me. It is JUST”

Yet I am not sure -dazed between sure and unsure- that Irwandi-Nazar and our young leaders could make our hopes real. However, I noted Nazar once said, strictly: “The punishment for corruptor is hand-chopping!” Well, we will see whose hand to be chopped first.(Translated by FO)