Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T03:03:35.902Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethnic Conflicts in Indonesia: National Models, Critical Junctures, and the Timing of Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Jacques Bertrand
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Beginning in the mid-1990s, there was a sudden rise in violent ethnic conflict in Indonesia. Two aspects that require explanation are the timing and clustering of this type of conflict historically. Other studies have not adequately explained these aspects. Methodological and thematic choices have generated problems with identifying and explaining clustering. Microlevel studies fail to account for the broader changes occurring at a macrolevel. Some researchers have chosen to broaden the scope of analysis of violent events to provide explanations of violence more generally. After reviewing these other studies, I argue that a historical institutionalist approach remains best able to explain the clustering of conflicts and the following period of stability. Changing institutional contexts at critical junctures created rising anxieties as well as opportunities to renegotiate group inclusion and status in the Indonesian state.

Keywords

Indonesiaconflictethnic violenceMalukuKalimantanDayakAcehPapuademocratization
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , December 2008 , pp. 425 - 449
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akita, Takahiro, and Alisjahbana, Armida S.. 2002. “Regional Income Inequality in Indonesia and the Initial Impact of the Economic Crisis.” Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 38, 2: 201–222.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict, ed. 2001. Violence and the State in Suharto's Indonesia. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Aragon, Lorraine. 2001. “Communal Violence in Poso, Central Sulawesi: Where People Eat Fish and Fish Eat People.” Indonesia 72: 45–79.Google Scholar
Barker, Joshua. 2001. “State of Fear: Controlling the Criminal Contagion in Suharto's New Order.” In Violence and the State in Suharto's Indonesia , ed. Anderson, Benedict. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Bertrand, Jacques. 2004. Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Booth, Anne. 2000. “The Impact of the Indonesian Crisis on Welfare: What Do We Know Two Years On?” In Indonesia in Transition: Social Aspects of Reformasi and Crisis , ed. Manning, C. and Van Diermen, P.. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Bråten, Eldar. 2002. “Against Community, Beyond Humanity: Grasping ‘Violence’ in Java.” In Violence and Vengeance: Discontent and Conflict in New Order Indonesia , ed. Hüsken, F. and de Jonge, H.. Saarbrücken: Verlag für Entwicklungspolitik.Google Scholar
Colombijn, Freek, and Thomas Lindblad, J., eds. 2002. Roots of Violence in Indonesia: Contemporary Violence in Historical Perspective. Leiden: KITLV Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, Jamie S. 2003. “The Politics of Violence on an Indonesian Periphery.” South East Asia Research 11, 1: 59–89.Google Scholar
Davidson, Jamie S. 2008. From Rebellion to Riots: Collective Violence on Indonesian Borneo. New Perspectives in Southeast Asian Studies. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
de Jonge, Huub. 2002. “Rather White Bones Than White Eyes: Violent Selfhelp Among the Madurese.” In Violence and Vengeance: Discontent and Conflict in New Order Indonesia , ed. Hüsken, F. and de Jonge, H.. Saarbrücken: Verlag für Entwicklungspolitik.Google Scholar
Dittmer, Lowell, ed. 2002. “The Legacy of Violence in Indonesia.” Asian Survey 42, 4: 542–672.Google Scholar
Eklöf, Stephan. 2002. “The 1965–66 Killings in Bali: Historical and Cultural Approaches.” In Violence and Vengeance: Discontent and Conflict in New Order Indonesia , ed. Hüsken, F. and de Jonge, H.. Saarbrücken: Verlag für Entwicklungspolitik.Google Scholar
Frederick, William H. 2002. “Shadows of an Unseen Hand: Some Patterns of Violence in the Indonesian Revolution, 1945–1949.” In Roots of Violence in Indonesia: Contemporary Violence in Historical Perspective , ed. Colombijn, Freek and Thomas Lindblad, J.. Leiden: KITLV Press.Google Scholar
Hefner, Robert W. 2000. Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia. Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Herriman, Nicholas. 2006. “The Killings of Alleged Sorcerers in South Malang: Conspiracy, Ninjas, or ‘Community Justice’?” In Violent Conflicts in Indonesia: Analysis, Representation, Resolution , ed. Coppel, C. A.. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald L. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald L. 2001. The Deadly Ethnic Riot. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hüsken, Frans, and de Jonge, Huub, eds. 2002. Violence and Vengeance: Discontent and Conflict in New Order Indonesia. Saarbrücken: Verlag für Entwicklungspolitik.Google Scholar
Kammen, Douglas. 2001. “The Trouble with Normal: The Indonesian Military, Paramilitaries, and the Final Solution in East Timor.” In Violence and the State in Suharto's Indonesia , ed. Anderson, Benedict. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Liddle, R. William. 1996. Leadership and Culture in Indonesian Politics. Sydney: Asian Studies Association of Australia, in association with Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Liong, Liem Soei. 2002. “It's the Military, Stupid!” In Roots of Violence in Indonesia: Contemporary Violence in Historical Perspective , ed. Colombijn, Freek and Thomas Lindblad, J.. Leiden: KITLV Press.Google Scholar
Locher-Scholten, Elsbeth. 2002. “State Violence and the Police in Colonial Indonesia Circa 1920: Exploration of a Theme.” In Roots of Violence in Indonesia: Contemporary Violence in Historical Perspective , ed. Colombijn, Freek and Thomas Lindblad, J.. Leiden: KITLV Press.Google Scholar
Peluso, Nancy Lee. 2006. “Passing the Red Bowl: Creating Community Identity Through Violence in West Kalimantan, 1967–1997.” In Violent Conflicts in Indonesia: Analysis, Representation, Resolution , ed. Coppel, C. A.. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Purdey, Jemma. 2006. “The ‘Other’ May Riots: Anti-Chinese Violence in Solo, May 1998.” In Violent Conflicts in Indonesia: Analysis, Representation, Resolution , ed. Coppel, C. A.. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ryter, Loren. 2001. “Pemuda Pancasila: The Last Loyalist Free Men of Suharto's Order?” In Violence and the State in Suharto's Indonesia , ed. Anderson, Benedict. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Schiller, Anne, and Garang, Bambang. 2002. “Religion and Inter-ethnic Violence in Indonesia.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 32, 2: 244–254.Google Scholar
Schulte Nordholt, Henk. 2002. “A Genealogy of Violence.” In Roots of Violence in Indonesia: Contemporary Violence in Historical Perspective , ed. Colombijn, Freek and Thomas Lindblad, J.. Leiden: KITLV Press.Google Scholar
Sidel, John. 2006. Riots, Pogroms, Jihad: Religious Violence in Indonesia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, John. 2004. Indonesian Living Standards: Before and After the Financial Crisis. Santa Monica, CA: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Rand Corporation.Google Scholar
Suryahadi, Asep, Sumarto, Sudarno, and Pritchett, Lant. 2003. “The Evolution of Poverty During the Crisis in Indonesia.” Jakarta: SMERU Research Institute.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Kees. 2002. “The Realms of Order and Disorder in Indonesian Life.” In Violence and Vengeance: Discontent and Conflict in New Order Indonesia , ed. Hüsken, F. and de Jonge, H.. Saarbrücken: Verlag für Entwicklungspolitik.Google Scholar
van Klinken, Gerry. 2001. “The Maluku Wars: Bringing Society Back In.” Indonesia 71: 1–26.Google Scholar
van Klinken, Gerry. 2007. Communal Violence and Democratization in Indonesia: Small Town Wars. Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series No. 15. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Varshney, Ashutosh, Panggabean, Rizal, and Tadjoeddin, Mohammad Zulfan. 2004. Patterns of Collective Violence in Indonesia (1990–2003). Jakarta: UNSFIR.Google Scholar
Wetterberg, Anna, Sumarto, Sudarno, and Pritchett, Lant. 1999. “A National Snapshot of the Social Impact of Indonesia's Crisis.” Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 35, 3: 145–152.Google Scholar