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Ashutosh Varshney, Professor of Political Science at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor presented his proposal study together with cosultant of the World Bank, Patrick Barron and Blair Palmer.
Summary of Presentation
Group conflict in Indonesia is in need of serious theoretical and policy attention. A new belief that conflict has de-escalated in Indonesia appears to have crept into popular and policy circles. However, it is not clear whether the movement towards de-escalation is cyclical or permanent. Nor is it clear that newer forms of conflict will not erupt in Indonesia. Comparative theory and evidence indicate that violence often reappears in areas that previously had acute conflict. Theory also suggests that unless suitable institutions or policies are imaginatively devised and put in place, a multiethnic or multireligious society is quite vulnerable to possibilities of long-run conflict.
The existing literature has advanced our understanding of why some large-scale conflicts erupted – in Aceh, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and the Malukus -- but crucial gaps remain. Moreover, the larger scholarship on ethnocommunal conflict has made enormous advances over the last ten years, but Indonesia plays virtually no part in this scholarly effervescence. Very little is known about conflict dynamics in Indonesia beyond a small circle of Indonesia specialists. Indonesia needs theory and, equally, conflict theory needs Indonesian materials. The conflict dynamics in Indonesia, among other things, are likely to have relevance for those multiethnic and/or multireligious societies that used to have authoritarian political orders and have of late gone through a democratic transition accompanied by considerable group violence. Nigeria, post-Communist Eastern and Central Europe, and Central America easily come to mind, but the list can be expanded.
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