Conjuring Zones of Insecurity: Post-Conflict Election Campaigning by Text Message in Aceh, Indonesia

Abstract

After more than 20 years of sporadic separatist insurgency, the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government signed an internationally brokered peace agreement in August 2005, just eight months after the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated Aceh's coastal communities. This paper presents a case study of post-conflict electoral campaign messages that circulated by text message (SMS) around Aceh in advance of the April 2009 legislative elections. The elections were widely seen as an important benchmark of success for the peace agreement, in which former members of the Free Aceh Movement were given the right to form local, Aceh-based, political parties—the first of its kind in Indonesia—in exchange for relinquishing their demands for independence. SMS technology is a cheap and efficient medium for spreading campaign messages. The ability for SMS messages to spread virally, ephemerally, and anonymously also enabled the rapid dissemination of threats and rumors designed to intimidate voters and rival candidates. Intimidations by SMS generally had their intended effect as they circulated in a setting of pre-election violence including arson, bombs, and targeted murders. This case study relies upon data that the author collected while working in Aceh as a registered international election observer during the campaign season in advance of the elections.