Decentralization, Revitalization, and Reconciliation in Indonesia

Abstract

During the more than three decades of President Suharto’s authoritarian regime in Indonesia, the so-called Orde Baru (New Order, 1966–1998), there was seemingly no need for any official discussion about reconciliation and peace. Conflicting opinions and emerging tensions — in particular conflicts based on ethnicity, religion, race, or class (Suku, Agama, Ras, dan Antargolongan, SARA) — were vehemently suppressed. Reconciliation and peace took on new meaning after a leadership change in 1998, when the political sphere opened up, local polities and institutions were (re)empowered, and people publicly began demanding for justice, truth, and peace. The radical political transformation, the massive waves of violence that ran through the country after 1998, and the fact that culture was the only means available to local people to reconcile in places such as Maluku make Indonesia a most interesting case to illustrate how the cultural turn was (and had to be) introduced into peace research. Decentralization was not the cause for the recent violence, which instead had its main roots in the structural injustices and marginalization policies of the Suharto era and its legacies, such as the poor performance of the security forces and the absence of an effective judicial system.