Managing Ethnic Relations in Post-Crisis Malaysia and Indonesia: Lessons from the New Economic Policy?

Abstract

In Indonesia the financial crisis of July 1997 sparked a precipitious economic collapse which catalysed the Reformasi that ended Suharto's three-decade `New Order' regime. The economic implosion and political turbulence brought in their wake several outbreaks of ethnic violence. These were major incidents perpetrated against the Chinese population in Jakarta and some parts of rural Java, breaking out between Christian and Muslim communities in Maluku, and mounted by Dayaks against Madurese in Kalimantan. Being telescoped into a short period of turmoil and then virtually left to fester, the violence suggested that Indonesia's ethnic relations were fast collapsing into chaos.