The awareness of mutual respect post-conflicts: ethnic chinese strategy through social interaction and engagement in West Kalimantan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article ascribes social-interactional strategies of ethnic Chinese toward the local people in developing mutual social relationship after the conflicts or post-conflicts. The context of multicultural ethnic life had distressed Chinese people to mingle with local people in West Kalimantan causing a wide social gap in the society. This research was conducted through an ethnography methodology to reveal the facts utilizing observation, interview, and documentation to collect the data. There were twelve participants participated as the informants of the research included four Chinese and eight local people. The results of the research revealed that ethnic Chinese had been successful to rebuild and develop the social relationship with the local people through social interaction and engagement. The strategy used was to prioritize human values while interacting, as well as to respect the culture diversity that existed in the community. By implementing the strategy, the social—interactional relationship between Chinese and local people after the conflicts became harmonious. This result could also trigger or lead other multicultural communities to implement similar strategies to fix or rebuild their inter-ethnic relationship. Finally, this article contributes to propose problem solutions to solve social conflicts in multicultural community, and as an effort to prevent the inter-ethnic conflicts.