Local concentration of cocial violence in Indonesia

Local concentration of cocial violence in Indonesia

Mohammad Zulfan Tadjoeddin
Research Associate
United Nations Support Facility
for Indonesian Recovery (UNSFIR)
Jakarta
zulfan.unsfir@un.or.id

Indonesia is often characterized as a troubled country ridden
with conflict and violence in every region. Is this
characterization correct? To answer this question, we need to
examine carefully data relating to violent social conflict. In
this context, violent social conflict is defined as conflict
between two distinct social groups that cannot be
institutionalized and which turns into violent actions.

The preliminary results of a recently developed social
conflict database for Indonesia compiled by the UN Support
Facility for Indonesian Recovery (UNSFIR), a join project of the
Government of Indonesia and UNDP, show that social conflicts and
violence in Indonesia are locally concentrated in only a few
provinces and districts, although their social, political and
economic impacts are nationally felt.

A preliminary analysis of this database reveals two
interesting features. First, communal violence is the most severe
category of social violence, followed by separatist violence.
Between 1990 and 2001, the data show that communal and separatist
violence caused maximum fatalities, accounting for 77 percent and
22 percent of total deaths in social violence, respectively.
Here, communal violence is defined as social violence between two
groups of the community, or one group being attacked by the
other. Communal groups can be based on ethnicity, religion,
social class, political affiliation or simple village differences
and so on.

Second, social violence in Indonesia is primarily locally
concentrated. While separatist violence only occurred in Aceh and
Papua, communal violence was concentrated in several districts or
cities. Based on the conditions before the formation of new
administrative regions by the ongoing decentralization, only
eight regions (7 districts and 1 city) account for an enormously
disproportionate distribution of communal violence in the
country; approximately 65 percent of total deaths in communal
violence. Based on the 1995 Inter-Population Census (SUPAS),
however, these eight regions represent a mere 1.9 percent of
Indonesia's population. The eight regions are four districts and
one city in Maluku (the districts of North Maluku, Central
Maluku, Southeast Maluku and Central Halmahera, and the city of
Ambon), plus three other districts; namely Poso of Sulawesi, and
East Kotawaringin and Sambas of Kalimantan. More than ninety-
eight percent of Indonesia's population has not been "communal
riot-prone".

The local concentration of social conflicts in a large country
is not a phenomenon unique to Indonesia. India, the world's
second largest country after China in terms of total population,
also shows a local concentration of communal conflicts -- in this
case Hindu-Muslim violence. The local concentration of communal
violence in India is one of the most interesting findings in the
research done by Prof. Ashutosh Varshney, a political scientist
at the University of Michigan. The study was published by Yale
University Press, 2002, under the title of Ethnic Conflict and
Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India.

Professor Varshney concludes that, first, the share of
villages in communal rioting turned out to be remarkably small.
Between 1950 and 1995, rural India, where two-thirds of Indians
still live, accounted for about 4 percent of the deaths in
communal violence. Hindu-Muslim violence is primarily an urban
phenomenon. Secondly, within urban India too, Hindu-Muslim riots
are highly locally concentrated. Only eight cities account for a
hugely disproportionate share of communal violence in the
country; approximately 46 percent of all deaths in Hindu-Muslim
violence. As a group, however, these eight cities represent a
mere 18 percent of India's urban population, and about 5 percent
of the country's total population, both urban and rural. Eighty-
two percent of India's urban population has not been "riot-
prone".

In contrast to India, however, communal violence in Indonesia
tends to be less concentrated in urban areas. Even though the
data needs some refinement, the incidents of social violence
mainly occurred in districts and small towns. Communal conflicts
in Maluku, Poso, Sambas and East Kotawaringin (Sampit) are more a
battle between communities in rural areas.

Understanding of such facts -- that social violence in
Indonesia, like in India, is locally concentrated -- should
bring significant implications in analyzing conflicts and
exploring Indonesia's policy choices.

Although characterized by high local concentration, social
conflicts (mainly communal conflicts) in Indonesia have resulted
in nationally distributed impacts. This can be seen from the
following indicators: internally displaced persons (IDPs), budget
pressure, the destroyed image of the country and the exhausted
national energy to overcome this problem.

There are now approximately 1.3 million IDPs spread across 21
provinces, largely victims of highly location-specific social
violence. Their existence will certainly put pressure on local
governments economically, politically and socially. IDPs from
Aceh are mainly spread in North Sumatra, and partly in Riau,
Jambi, South Sumatra, and up to West, Central and East Java. East
Java and especially Madura are the main destinations of IDPs from
Sambas and Sampit. Poso IDPs flood its neighboring regions.
Maluku IDPs spread in all Sulawesi, Papua and up to Java.
Furthermore, the remaining East Timorese IDPs are still left in
East Nusatenggara. All of them need housing, jobs, social
infrastructure and other economic, social and cultural rights
that have disappeared because of conflicts.

The required intervention for humanitarian aid and post-
conflict recovery has caused severe budgetary problems for both
national and regional governments. It adds to the current budget
pressure due to the economic crisis and the mountain of public
debt.

Violent conflicts in Indonesia have destroyed the image of the
country in international eyes with adverse consequences for
tourism and investments. Even though Indonesia has a large
domestic market, the perception of an unsafe country, a brutal
society and an inefficient police and military unable to control
law and order is driving away investors and tourists.

In general, conflicts have exhausted national energy for
reconciliation and rehabilitation efforts, humanitarian aid, as
well as efforts to prevent conflicts erupting into violence in
other regions. The recovery, rehabilitation and reconciliation in
conflict prone areas are becoming more complicated due to the
reality that sometimes, local conflicts cannot be isolated from
politics at the national level.

The knowledge that social conflict in Indonesia has a high
degree of local concentration should improve the common
understanding of conflict in this country. Even though locally
concentrated, conflicts have produced nation wide economic,
political and social impacts. Therefore, national efforts are
needed to overcome those conflicts. As part of such efforts,
UNSFIR, in collaboration with several other institutions, is now
pioneering the establishment of social conflict database for
Indonesia to be used by a number of users.

The views expressed herein are entirely personal