Indonesia: Power Struggles in Maluku
Jakarta/Brussels |
22 May 2007
The proposed division of a district in a remote corner of the Indonesian archipelago could lead to conflict unless government officials pay careful attention to latent communal tensions, equitable distribution of development funds and even-handed prosecution of corruption.
Indonesia: Decentralisation and Local Power Struggles in Maluku,* the latest update briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the likely impact of dividing South East Maluku district, with the town of Tual becoming a new municipality through a decentralisation mechanism known as pemekaran, literally “blossoming”. The original idea was that smaller units would bring better service delivery and more representative government, but too often the process is driven by local elites eager for power and wealth. In former conflict areas like Maluku, administrative disputes that arise as a result, whether over boundaries, civil service appointments or choice of district capital, can quickly become magnified.
“The geography of Indonesia’s more than 13,000 islands clearly makes decentralisation essential,” says Robert Templer, Asia Program Director. “But in South East Maluku, as in other former conflict areas, the question is whether the process will build bridges or foster distrust. Everything depends on implementation”.
South East Maluku erupted in conflict for three months in 1999 shortly after Christian-Muslim fighting broke out in Ambon. Most people point to local customary law that bridged the religious divide as the main reason why it was quickly brought under control, but tensions remain, and the proposed division will leave the new municipality predominantly Muslim and the rump predominantly Christian.
Land and economic development are bigger issues, but both could take on a communal cast. Depending on how the borders are drawn, Tual could end up with most of the public facilities, leaving the rump district with nothing. Opponents of the split say this will bankrupt the latter. Proponents say it will be a stimulus to growth.
As parliamentarians in Jakarta were preparing the law that will make the division official, due to be passed at the end of May, the Maluku governor put forward a new proposal that seemed to offer a constructive way forward, giving Tual a little less territory and the old district a little more. No one is clear what the outcome will be, but many are apprehensive about the consequences.
“The reality of communal tensions in South East Maluku needs to be faced squarely”, said Sidney Jones, South East Asia Project Director. “The issues over Tual have nothing to do with religion and everything to do with who gets a share of the political and economic pie. But privately everyone we met brought a religio-political calculus to the discussion”.