Regardless of instances of violence, no systematic reports on conflict have been published by the Indonesian government, which has remained intent on maintaining the appearance of order and stability. How widespread is collective violence? What patterns can be observed? This paper by the United Nations Support Facility for Indonesian Recovery is based on the first database ever constructed on group violence in Indonesia (in the period 1990-2003), and identifies various national, regional and local patterns of collective violence.
Four categories of collective violence are identifiable: (i) ethno-communal, (ii) state versus community, (iii) economic and (iv) other. The results of the study concentrate on substantive questions. These include the level of violence before and after the end of the New Order, the types of violence, their relative intensity and geographic distribution, and the different types of triggers of violence.
Three existing theories of collective violence in Indonesia are explained, including that in which violence is assumed to be embedded in history and culture. The empirical information from the database is put against these theories in order to prove or disprove them. The main findings from the database include:
- Evidence that the period before Suharto’s fall in 1998 was entirely peaceful had not been found. The most striking difference between the New Order and the post-Suharto period is that the New Order used state-perpetrated violence to bring order.
- Clashes between social groups have been more common since 1998. Overall, collective violence in Indonesia is highly locally concentrated, with 15 districts accounting for 85.5 percent of all deaths in collective violence.
- Youth clashes constitute the single most important trigger for group violence. The nature of such clashes in Indonesia differs from the forms of violence usually employed by youth in other parts of the world.
- Ethnocommunal violence accounts for 17 per cent of all violence, but its share of deaths is almost 90 percent. Within that category, inter-religious violence has caused the most deaths, followed closely by inter-ethnic conflict.
Understanding the patterns of collective violence in Indonesia is useful for prevention or minimisation of group violence in the coming years. This study can also offer an understanding of how to deal with other endemically violent towns. It can inform better policy responses by international agencies, NGOs and governments.
- Attention should be paid to local-level factors that play a role in triggering collective violence.
- Policy interventions that could channel the energy of youth in a more constructive direction are worthy of serious consideration.
- Collective-violence database management is an important issue. It should be updated each year and any errors that emerge as a result of more accurate information on older events should be corrected.
