Intra-regional conflicts haunt Indonesia
Intra-regional conflicts haunt Indonesia
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The conflicts between indigenous people and incoming inhabitants
in several regions will pose a more serious threat to Indonesia's
stability and integrity than religious conflicts unless
democratic values are fully adopted by the nation, a noted
scholar says.
Franz Magnis Suseno, a professor of political ethics from the
Driyarkara School of Philosophy, said last week in Jakarta that
the probability of such conflicts loomed high in many areas such
as Kalimantan, Aceh, Maluku and Papua.
"About 20 percent of the Indonesian population live outside
their ethnic groups. That means more than 40 million people could
be involved in conflicts," German-born Franz said.
"Religious conflicts are communal and religious leaders are
all aware of the dangers of such conflicts. That's why, religious
conflicts were contained in respective regions," he said.
Indonesia has been hit by many conflicts that are seen by many
experts as a mixture between ethnic and religious conflicts since
the fall of Soeharto in 1998. The clash between the Dayaks, the
native people of Kalimantan, and the Madurese in 1999, for
example, claimed 200 lives, mostly Madurese and forced 10,000
others to return to their ancestral island.
In Aceh, native Acehnese attacked and expelled thousands of
migrant Javanese in almost every area in the province since the
separatist movement reignited in 1999.
In Maluku, the conflict between religious groups was initiated
by the initial clash between native Ambonese and immigrants from
South Sulawesi in January 1999. More than 5,000 people had been
killed since then.
A similar case in Poso, Central Sulawesi, has the same cause
and impact. The clashes have left about 2,000 people dead since
1999, and about 11,000 families have become refugees.
To make the problem worse, Franz noted there was a tendency
for local politicians to exploit the situations for their own
interests in winning the support of local people for their
political objectives.
The ethnic conflicts in various regions have been made severe,
particularly, after the issuance of Law No. 22/1999 on regional
autonomy that gives more authority to local administrations. The
law also opens the possibility to the phenomena of tribalism, in
which local people tend to put their ethnic interests in front of
national ones.
"There is a strong pressure to choose local people as
government officials in every region. Moreover, the conflicts
could displace a huge number of incoming inhabitants out of the
region where they live, and create a severely chaotic situation
for the country," he said.
He also said that the Indonesian Military (TNI) would not be
able to control the chaos if clashes erupted in more than four
big cities at the same time.
"The 300,000 military personnel could only handle conflicts in
four big cities at the most. If there were conflicts, say, in
Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya and Medan or Ujung Pandang
simultaneously, Indonesia would disintegrate," he argued.
Franz said that as a consequence, force could not be used as a
means to solve the problem either because of the inadequate
number of military personnel or because most ethnic groups chose
deliberately to be a part of Indonesia.
"Indonesia is still there because people still have the
willingness to integrate," he said.
The professor proposed democracy as the answer to the problem.
It would be impossible to have an authoritarian regime like
Soeharto's anymore because people were wiser now. Therefore,
there would be no other alternatives outside the system of
democracy.
"Democracy allows people to manage conflicts in a non-violent
way. It encourages people to raise their own proposals openly if
they don't like certain policies or actions. Any proposed
regulation or action will be better if it is discussed publicly,"
he argued.
Even though he admitted that democracy in Indonesia was still
at a critical juncture, he argued that democratization in the
country should be continued at all costs.