Boston University doctoral student F. N. U. Sumanto, supervised by Dr. Robert Hefner, will undertake research on interreligious violence, citizenship, and post-conflict peace in the Christian-Muslim conflict zone of Maluku, Eastern Indonesia. The project proposes to investigate first, factors underlying interreligious violence, and, second, factors shaping the post-conflict truce and efforts to rebuild an operative structure and public culture for multi-religious citizenship in the region. More specifically, the project aims to examine the role of religious networks, organizations, discourses, and practices before, during, and after the violence, investigating which social resources aggravated local tensions, and, conversely, which contributed or is contributing to the creation of a public culture capable of mediating ethnic and religious divisions. The central focus of the project, then, is to explore the dynamics of Maluku's religious groups and civic organizations in responding to violence and the post-conflict truce, and to examine the implications of religious networks, associations, and discourses for the peace and for local understandings and practices of national citizenship. The research will utilize (1) ethnographic fieldwork, (2) network and associational analysis, and (3) the study of historical and textual materials.
This project is important because it will contribute, first, to social science theories of violence, conflict resolution, citizenship, and peacemaking in multi-religious societies. Second, the project will contribute to the growing body of theory and research on the role of religion in deeply divided societies. More generally, this project will also be of direct relevance to the study of violence and reconciliation in those parts of the world that have suffered the ravages of mass violence.
This research project focuses on the study of interreligious violence and the prospect for future peace-building and reconciliation in the Christian-Muslim conflict zone of Moluccan Islands, eastern Indonesia. Moluccan islands (also known the Moluccas or Maluku) are the home for Muslims, Protestants, and Catholics who had once been living in relatively peaceful coexistence for centuries. In 1999, however, the islands turned out otherwise. Beginning on January 19, 1999 and lasting for a period of more than four years, violent conflicts between local Christians and Muslims broke out on the islands. Against this backdrop, this project proposed to investigate factors underlying the interreligious conflict and violence as well as those shaping the post-conflict truce and citizenship on the Maluku conflict zone. Based on my research and fieldwork I conducted on Ambon Island in the Moluccas from 2010 to 2011, I found some interesting research findings that need for further examination, as follows: First, unlike common existing scholarships on the social history of Maluku’s Christian-Muslim relation which portray "peaceful relations" between them before the communal conflict broke out on the region (1999-2004), I found that the relations between Christians and Muslims were marked by conflict, competition, and violence since the time of Portuguese colonial era in the sixteenth century until the end of the Dutch colonialism and Japanese occupation in the area. Second, the Maluku conflicts from 1999-2004 were not "homogenous", but varied, in terms of root causes, actors, motives, interests, and so forth. The acts of violence furthermore occurred in various episodes or stages ranging from religiously motivated riots to the violent conflicts driven by issues of separatism and terrorism. Third, Maluku’s local actors were very significant in their role during the conflict. This finding is vital to underline because most analyses on the Maluku conflict emphasize the central role of Jakarta-based military and civilian elites as the "active actors" while at the same time portray Maluku’s people as the victims of the wars. Looking at more deeply to the dynamics of the Maluku conflict, however, one will notice that "local actors" played significant role during the wars. They were not "passive victims" but truly "active actors" during the conflict. Fourth, conflict and competition among Muslims from different ethnic backgrounds, regions, and clans—both settlers and migrants—over cultural, economic, and political resources are very high in pre-conflict Maluku and its aftermath. Due to this competition, some Muslim groups sometimes are more willing to forge alliances with Christians than with Muslims, in effort to exclude or eliminate their Muslim rivals. Fifth, in the first phases of the Maluku wars, before turning to issues of separatism and terrorism, religious identities played an important role in the conflict. Based on my survey to one hundred ex-militias, both Christians and Muslims, and my conversation with ordinary people joined the wars, religious discourses, networks, institutions, and actors greatly contributed to the stimulation and escalation of the wars. Sixth, state-society synergy has been the key in stopping the mass violence and resolving conflict. While some factions in government might—and did—play some roles in exacerbating violence, others significantly contributed to the peace-building and reconciliation process between the conflicting parties. Seventh, although the current situation of Maluku is relatively peaceful in the sense that there are no Christian-Muslim mass violent conflicts, the region is still vulnerable for renewed violence. Eighth, while in some parts of Indonesia religious groups eagerly pursue the application of Islamic Shari'a (i.e. Aceh) and of Christian Law (i.e. West Papua), Maluku (dominated by Muslims) and Ambon City (dominated by Christians) are absent from the discussion. Both Christians and Muslims are not interested in talking about this issue, highlighting that the most importance for the Ambonese and the Malukans is justice, peace, and welfare! The provincial and regional branches of Islam-based political parties are not willing to talk about the Islamic Shari'a. Party leaders point out that discussion of the issue in the Maluku context is useless and results in lost votes in elections. Ninth, there is a tendency that in the aftermath of religious violence, ethnic difference, "clan-ism" and "regionalism" are becoming more prominent in Ambon/Maluku. Instead of religious identities, most politicians in contemporary Maluku and Ambon emphasize their ethnic identities, or their clans, or their "native regions" to win the hearts of voters. The implicit message is that each ethnic group or clan—whatever their religion—has to vote for its own leaders to guarantee access to vital economic resources and political power. The NSF award had enabled me to conduct research, survey, and fieldwork in Ambon and surrounding islands affected by the previous wars for 14 months from 2010 to 2011. At present, under the guidance of Professor Robert W. Hefner, I am writing up the research findings in the dissertation which I plan to finish by May 2012. []
