Dr. David Chu Distinguished Leaders Lecture and Southeast Asia Seminar Series
One of the most serious types of conflict across Indonesia since the downfall of the Suharto’s authoritarian regime in 1998 arises from a tension among communities based on ethno-religious affiliation. The dominant discourse about the violence among scholars, international donor agencies, civil society organizations, mass media, government, and the like tends to highlight a certain kind of “clash of civilization,” in which, for example, Islam is pitted against Christianity. I argue that such an explanation is too limited. In my talk, which focuses on the province of Central Sulawesi, I will situate the current violence in the context of globalization. The global dimension of the violence has a historical trajectory that began in the colonial period and continues up to the present, neo-liberal era. Among the elements I will discuss are the legacy of colonial religious ‘pillarization’ and its political consequences, the formation of the post-colonial state, the extension of market based economy in natural resources with uneven patterns of dispossession, and the more specific global factors at play in the outbreak of the violence in 1998 and its continuation through to the present.
Arianto Sangadji is Director and co-founder of Yayasan Tanah Merdeka, (Free Land Foundation). YTM was founded in 1992 in response to the increasing threats facing adat communities from large scale developments. Some areas of YTM’s work include the protection of indigenous land rights, and working with populations affected by the expansion of transnational mining operations in Sulawesi. In 2005, Sangadji founded The Presidium to campaign against human rights abuse and corruption connected to the violence in Poso. It conducts fact-finding, mobilization and information dissemination. Its work starts from the conviction that the violence was not simply a matter of Christians versus Muslims, but involved manipulation by military, political and corporate players with diverse agendas that need to be exposed.
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