Legacies of the Authoritarian Past: Religious Violence in Indonesia's Moluccan Islands

Abstract

In January 1999, sudden and surprising violence broke out between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia’s Spice Islands. Previously seen as a stable province, Maluku2 quickly became the site of devastating interreligious strife. Thousands of people were killed in a spiral of violence over the following years. Little known in the rest of Indonesia and mainly neglected under the Suharto regime, Maluku became a core preoccupation of the Habibie, Wahid and Megawati governments. This article focuses on the conditions that increase the potential for violent conflict to erupt.3 Among these conditions, three are relevant to the case of Maluku: unresolved questions over principles of the nation; institutions that reinforce rather than defuse group identities, such as patrimonial relations under authoritarian rule; and rapid democratic transition. The particular confluence of these factors in Maluku created heightened tensions and uncertainties, and was compounded by the relative group size that was almost equal regionally but unequal nationally. These conditions made severe violence likely but not inevitable, nor necessarily lengthy and widespread. ______________________