Coexistence not Reconciliation: From Communal Violence to Non-Violence in North Maluku, Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

Cultural approaches to reconciliation, those based on ‘traditional’ practices for peacemaking, have attracted the attention of scholars looking at post-conflict regions in Indonesia. Numerous observers have pointed to the revitalisation of the Tobelo adat notion of hibualamo in the province of North Maluku as a successful example of this approach. This paper disputes those conclusions and explores local strategies for peacebuilding and reactions to these strategies in post-conflict North Halmahera. I compare grassroots understandings of ‘reconciliation’ with those of the local elite behind this revitalisation effort. I also debate the concept of reconciliation as it has been applied to the region. Applying the concept of reconciliation, with its connotations of a positive peace, to the post-conflict situation in North Maluku is more of an idealistic view of the potentialities for peace than an actual reflection of reality. I suggest it is more appropriate to describe the situation as one of coexistence or negative peace.

Keywords:

• Peacebuilding
• Reconciliation
• Coexistence
• Religious Violence
• Indonesia

Notes

[1] The term adat, often glossed as ‘customary law’, generally refers to the local practices and institutions found among the various ethnic groups in Indonesia.

[2] The Indonesian Minister of Religion even cited the success of hibualamo in maintaining peaceful inter-faith relations when he named North Halmahera a ‘Model of Religious Harmony’ (Antaranews.com 2016).

[3] A number of scholars and NGOs have written about reconciliation in Indonesia. Braithwaite et al. (2010) and Bräuchler (2009b) explore the topic throughout the country. Tindage (2006), Sitohang et al. (2003), Lakawa (2011) and Putjutju (2012) have written about North Maluku. Al Qurtuby (2013), Bräuchler (2009b), Thorburn (2008) and Laksono and Topatimasang (2003), among others, have looked at Maluku.

[4] Bloomfield (2006) provides an in-depth exploration of the various ways that different authors have attempted to define or explain the concept of reconciliation.

[5] Although also a fuzzy concept, the idea of coexistence ‘carries none of the religious overtones, or peacebuilding implications of reconciliation’ (Bloomfield 2006, 13). For discussions of the concept coexistence see Kriesberg (2001) and Chayes and Minow (2003).

[6] I have explored this violence in more detail elsewhere (Duncan 2013).

[7] The Indonesian government split the province of Maluku into two new provinces in 1999. The southern two thirds of the original province retained its previous name. This ‘new’ province of Maluku consists of the large islands of Seram, Buru, Ambon and the southeastern parts of the old province, including the Tanimbar, Kai and Aru Archipelagos. The northern third, including Ternate, Tidore, Halmahera and surrounding islands, as well as the Sula Archipelago, became the new province of North Maluku.

[8] When the province of North Maluku was created in 1999 it consisted of only two districts (kabupaten). One of the first priorities of the provincial government in post-conflict North Maluku was to establish new districts throughout the province. This process initially created eight new districts, some of which have been subsequently subdivided. Each of these new districts then needed to decide upon a district capital.

[9] Bracketed translations in this paper represent the Indonesian language, unless otherwise indicated.

[10] The concept of hibualamo has been explored in depth elsewhere by scholars (Duncan 2009b; Nanuru 2011), as well as in local government-sponsored publications (Duan 2009; Papilaya 2012; Pemerintah Daerah Halmahera Utara & Dinas Pariwisata Halmahera Utara n.d.).

[11] Although traditional communal houses (rumah adat) disappeared from Tobelo villages in North Halmahera, they were still present in Modole and Sahu villages elsewhere on the island at the end of the twentieth century (Visser & Mursid 1983).

[12] Namotemo also holds several titles derived from adat, albeit contested, including Jiko ma Kolano (Ruler of the Bay), which he received in 2001.

[13] During this congress Namotemo was chosen to be chair of AMAN’s National Board (Ketua Dewan AMAN Nasional) for a period of five years, increasing his national reputation.

[14] Platenkamp (1988, 190–224) has written at length on the wedding rituals of the Tobelo, while Visser (1989, 145–168) has written about the Sahu rice harvest ceremony.

[15] Initial concerns with accountability and justice that I noted in an earlier publication (Duncan 2013, 119–124) appear to have faded in the decade or so since the end of the violence as individuals and communities have come to accept that it will not happen.

[16] There also seems to be an implicit (one could argue normative) assumption in some of the writing on reconciliation that communities should want reconciliation. In the case of North Maluku authors often point back to pre-conflict images of the region as one of religious harmony that the reconciliation process can recapture, an image that others, such as Duncan (2013, 30–40) and Al Qurtuby (2013, 99–117) have shown to be rather idealistic.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Anthropologists’ Fund for Urgent Anthropological Fieldwork in coordination with the Royal Anthropological Institute and Goldsmiths College of the University of London.