Indonesia Facing Ethnic Tension

As Indonesians observed Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge) — that unites the diverse country under one nation, one country and one language — villagers in the remote South Lampung district in Sumatra island were on a violent rampage trying to kill one another.

Some 14 people died while hundreds others fled for their lives as their homes were torched in ethnic violence involving Muslim Lampung natives of Agom and migrant Hindu Balinese of Balinuraga village between Oct. 28 and 31.

Order was restored only after a reinforcement of 2,000 police and troops from Jakarta was flown in and a peace agreement was brokered by leaders of the two communities at the prodding of the authorities last Monday.

The conflict was sparked by a trivial spat on Oct. 27 when two Muslim girls on a motorcycle were injured in a minor accident after being allegedly harassed by four Balinese youths.

It prompted a mass attack on Balinese villages by hundreds of Lampung natives.

It was not the first incident as violence had broken out before — in January — triggered by a fight over parking space between natives and Balinese migrants in the nearby village of Napal.

The ethnic clash has raised concern over weaknesses of the government's transmigration program in Lampung and the failure of national integration in this ethnically diverse nation.

Here are some preliminary findings of a post-mortem of the incident by community leaders and analysts.

First, the resettlement of migrants from the densely populated island of Bali to the underpopulated Lampung province, more than 2,000 km away, had created resentment among the natives.

The Balinese were seen as "pendatang," or aliens, who were brought in to settle new plots of agrarian land in South Lampung under the transmigration program during the Sukarno administration in the 1960s.

It was meant to ease the demographic pressure of one region by relocating people to an underpopulated region.

However, the resettlement led to resentment over the preferential treatment given to the migrants as they were located in an enclave and granted facilities, including access to education and health care, that were not generally available to locals.

Second, the wealth gap between the two communities grew wider over the years; the migrants, being more enterprising and hard-working, appeared to dominate the village economy. They were rich enough to buy up property owned by fellow migrants from Java as well as the Lampung natives.

Increasingly, the villages became polarized, with hamlets like Balinuraga, which were targeted by Muslims, looking distinctly Balinese with their own gantries, coconut leaf decoration and Hindu temples.

The economic disparity has led to social envy by the natives. Journalists who visited the villages saw a picture of contrast between the well-endowed homes of the Balinese migrants and those belonging to the Lampung natives.

Third, integration was seriously lacking, despite the two communities having lived in close proximity with each other for decades.

As the migrants lived in an enclave, they retained their customs, traditions and practices — and thus their distinct cultural identity.

Religion was another factor that set them apart from the natives. The two communities hardly mixed with each other.

Fourth, analysts blame the local government for neglecting the welfare of the natives, who were weak economically compared to the migrants. The natives had no way of channelling their grievances and tended to blame the migrants for their economic woes.

The local authorities and the police failed to prevent the clash or detect early the rising tension that had been building up since January. When the latest violence flared up, the police were ill-prepared to handle the situation and had to seek reinforcements from Jakarta.

South Lampung has now joined the list of regions under the transmigration program which have been hit by ethnic unrest.

These include Central Kalimantan, with outbreaks of violence between the indigenous, mainly Christian Dayak and the Muslims transmigrated from Madura, in East Java; and Papua, with the recurring clash between the natives and the Javanese migrants.

The South Lampung government will have to do a lot more to address the root cause of the clash, rather than rely on the uneasy truce forged through the peace deal between the communities to maintain order in the district.

The 10-point peace agreement includes a mechanism to settle disputes through consultation and a call on the Balinese migrants to be less insular and to mix more with their Muslim neighbors.

The likelihood of another clash remains because of the simmering tension that has refused to go away, and the sense of injustice among the victims as the agreement does not cover prosecution of the perpetrators and the offer of any compensation for the deaths of their relatives and the loss of their homes.

The clash is also disturbing because it happened in one of the oldest transmigration settlements.

After being relocated in South Lampung for half a century, the migrants and their descendants would have been better integrated with the natives. Instead, the Lampung villagers went on a rampage, attacking the Balinese and razing their homes.

There have been repeated calls by the locals to move the Balinese to faraway Kalimantan in Borneo as a solution. These have been rejected by the authorities as the migrants are Indonesians who have the right to settle in any part of the country.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/commentary/indonesia-facing-ethnic-t...

I am not sure about the following images as to the religion of the victim, but I assume they are Hindu.