Communal Violence and Democratization in Indonesia: Small Town ...

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Indonesia democratized after the long and authoritarian New Order regime endedin May 1998. But the transition was far less peaceful than is often thought. Itclaimed about 10,000 lives in communal (ethnic and religious) violence, andnearly as many in separatist violence in Aceh and East Timor. This book is thefirst comprehensive analysis of the episodes of long-running, widespreadcommunal violence that erupted during the post-New Order transition.

Communal violence on this scale is new to Indonesia. It has been poorlyunderstood by the interested public and specialists alike, whether withinIndonesia or outside it. By adopting a contentious politics approach that examinesthe sociological processes of communal violence, the book details six episodesincluding ethnic fighting in West and Central Kalimantan, and MuslimChristianviolence in Central Sulawesi, Maluku (Ambon) and North Maluku. Drawing onexhaustive empirical material and detailed reports gathered from field visits toall the affected areas, van Klinken argues that there exists enough similaritybetween these episodes of communal violence to consider them as a singlephenomenon. This violence can be linked to the practice of politics in Indonesiasfrontiers, namely provincial towns beyond Java where democratization anddecentralization has led key figures to compete for control of the local state inemergency mode, by mobilizing ethnic and religious crowds. Such occurrencesdemonstrate how communal violence can erupt in a poor Third World countrywhen the state is weak. By providing an alternative understanding of violentethnic conflict in Indonesia through new source material and up-to-date fieldresearch, Communal Violence and Democratization in Indonesia will be essentialreading to students of Southeast Asian studies, social movements, politicalviolence and ethnicity.

Gerry van Klinken is a Research Fellow at KITLV/Royal Netherlands Instituteof Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, The Netherlands.

Communal Violence and Democratization in Indonesia

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2 The Politics of IndonesiaMalaysia Relations

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5 Living with Transition in LaosMarket integration in Southeast AsiaJonathan Rigg

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7 Violent Conflicts in IndonesiaAnalysis, representation, resolutionEdited by Charles A. Coppel

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13 Financial Fragility andInstability in IndonesiaYasuyuki Matsumoto

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Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series

Communal Violence andDemocratization in IndonesiaSmall town wars

Gerry van Klinken

First published 2007 by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canadaby Routledge270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2007 Gerry van Klinken

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataKlinken, Geert Arend van.

Communal violence democratization in Indonesia : small town wars / by Gerry van Klinken.

p. cm. (Routledge contemporary Southeast Asia series ; 15)Includes bibliographical reference and index.1. Indonesia Politics and government 1998

2. Communalism Indonesia. 3. Ethnic conflict Indonesia. 4. Political violence Indonesia. I.Title.

DS644.5.K597 2007956.804dc22 2006023831

ISBN10: 0415417139 (hbk)

ISBN13: 9780415417136 (hbk)ISBN13: 9780203965115 (ebk)

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledgescollection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

ISBN10: 0203965116 (ebk)

ISBN 0-203-96511-6 Master e-book ISBN

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.

To all who suffered through the wars and to those unsung heroes in remote places who worked for their end

Contents

List of illustrations viiiPreface xviiAcknowledgements xixGlossary xxi

1 Introduction 1

2 Why now? Temporal contexts 15

3 Why here? The town beyond Java 34

4 Identity formation in West Kalimantan 53

5 Escalation in Poso 72

6 Mobilization in Ambon 88

7 Polarization in North Maluku 107

8 Actor constitution in Central Kalimantan 124

9 Concluding reflections 138

Notes 147Bibliography 157Index 177

Illustrations

Figure

1.1 Deaths and incidents of non-secessionist collective violence in Indonesia, 19902003 5

Maps

1 The Indonesian archipelago (an overview) ix2 West Kalimantan x3 Central Kalimantan xi4 Central Sulawesi xii5 Maluku (an overview) xiii6 Maluku Province (after North Maluku splits off) xiv7 Ambon city xv8 North Maluku xvi

Tables

2.1 Jakarta politics, regional unrest 283.1 Towns and communal violence 353.2 Proportion of non-agricultural workers 393.3 Proportion of civil servants to non-agricultural workers (%),

1990 [B] 413.4 Change in number of civil servants/1000 population, 1980s 423.5 Vulnerability to ethnic conflict 44

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